Total Drama: Fate
by Heroi Oscura
Summary: After the challenge in the Alps, Noah accidentally stumbles upon a summoning circle in the Total Drama Jumbo Jet and summons a Servant, just as he's attacked by a strange man with a sword. Soon, Noah learns that he has unwillingly signed himself up for a second competition known as the Holy Grail War. With six other unknown participants in the cast, can he survive this war intact?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Berserker

 **First Scene Beta Read by** _ **Dark Angel Of Sorrow Returns**_

* * *

The village was burning.

Assassin stared at her opponent, her hand gripping her broadsword tightly. She could already feel that her Master had escaped away from all the fighting. She sighed, smiling lightly, before raising her sword and pointing it at her opponent. "Fufu," she chuckled, through the pain. "You're making a scary face right now."

Her opponent – she didn't know her class – wasn't smiling, and instead raised her katana and pointed it at Assassin. "Quiet," she demanded. "I've heard legends about Oni trickery."

"I'm not trying to trick you," Assassin winced as she reached up to clasp a hand around her bloody shoulder. "My Master has already escaped."

The other Servant narrowed her eyes. "I see," she hummed. "In that case, I'll have to kill him after I deal with you." She raised her katana and held it in front of her face. "Dan-No-Ura," she whispered to herself. "Eight Boat Leap!" She suddenly jumped forward and, in a flash, was in front of Assassin.

Assassin tried to react quickly and raise her sword, but the Servant quickly swung her weapon horizontally, slashing through her abdomen. The Servant landed on the ground behind Assassin, her katana coated in red blood.

Assassin fell to her knees, an arm around her stomach, as blood began to pool around her. "Please, Master," she murmured, as her sight began to fade. "You must survive…" Her eyes closed as she fell silent.

The other Servant scoffed and sheathed her katana. "Now to find the boy…" Her eyes widened suddenly, as she took a step back and grimaced. "You…!"

Twelve years in the future and seven thousand kilometers away, a young Indian man woke up in a derelict plane next to the winner of Total Drama Island, who was snoring loudly. He quickly held his head and looked around his surroundings with wide eyes.

"What the heck was that all about?" Noah wondered aloud.

Xxx

"Urghh…" Noah groaned aloud, holding a hand to his forehead. Today had not been the greatest day for him. First, he had nearly gotten sucked out of a plane, then he had been dropped from a plane and _then_ was caught in an avalanche thanks to _someone's_ love life. Not to mention, the entire time he had a nagging headache from the nightmare he had last night.

"Something wrong, buddy?" Owen, who was slightly in front of Noah as his team walked up the mountain to their next challenge, asked. "You've been holding your head for a while now."

"Well maybe it has something to do with the fact that we were just in an avalanche," Noah dryly remarked, shooting a glare at Tyler.

Tyler, who was right behind Noah, winced. "I said I was sorry," he protested.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Whatever, lover boy."

The jock just grinned sheepishly. "Yep that's me," he said proudly. "Lindsay finally remembered me!"

"Woo-hoo," Noah replied emotionlessly, before grimacing and clutching his head again.

"Um…" Owen blinked upon seeing Noah in pain. "Are you sure that's all?"

Noah sighed and rubbed his temples. "No," he admitted. "I had a strange dream last night."

"A dream?!" Izzy excitedly exclaimed from in front of Owen. Alejandro was farther away from Team Chris, hanging near Team Victory and Leshawna. "What kind of dream?"

"A dream," Noah answered flatly. "It wasn't exactly decipherable." The expression on his face became troubled. "I was in a fire watching two people fight. One of them lost and…" He hesitated. "The dream stops there," he lied.

"Wow…" Tyler blinked. "Sounds exciting."

Noah scowled. "Yeah. Exciting," he snapped.

"HUH!" Noah heard Owen gasp and looked up to see that the boy had somehow made it past Izzy and was near the top of the mountain. "Food!" Owen exclaimed, happily and, just as Noah and Tyler had reached the top with Izzy, fell to his knees in front of a pile of meat.

At least… Noah assumed it was meat. It was hard to tell with Chris sometimes.

"It's beautiful!" Owen fell face first into the pile and began to eat.

"Easy tiger," Chris said, walking up to Owen and getting him to stop eating.

Noah simply watched Chris, paying attention to the instructions, making a face when Chris showed off the track that they would be running. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Chef blew his horn and Chris yelled. "Go, go, go!" prompting the teams into action.

Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot all gathered by their grinder. Alejandro and Izzy hopped onto the top of it, as Izzy stuck her head in the large hole where the meat was supposed to be thrown in. "Ooooo!" she cried into the hole, making her voice echo.

Alejandro quickly grabbed her and looked at his teammates. "Tyler," he quickly said, assuming command. "We need your strength on the grinder. Owen pack that sausage like your life depends on it!"

Owen saluted. "Aye Aye captain!"

"Noah!" Alejandro glanced down at Noah. "You make sure that Izzy doesn't go near the grinder again!" He tossed her down to Noah, who had his arms outstretched to catch her. Just before Izzy reached him, he realized what a bad idea that was, as Izzy slammed her ass into her face.

"And there goes my pelvis…" Noah managed to croak out, just before he blacked out.

He woke up a few moments later and sat up to see his three other teammates still shoveling meat into the grinder. He looked around to find that the other two teams were still working, but Izzy was nowhere to be found. "Um… guys," he called out tentatively.

"What is it, Noah?" Alejandro asked, still focused on the meat.

"Izzy's gone," Noah pointed out simply.

Alejandro's eyes widened as he looked around for the girl. "Que Mierda," he muttered, before turning to Noah. "Go look for her then!"

Noah rolled his eyes. "Got it," he said without much enthusiasm, running off to the edge of the mountain. He glanced behind him to see that the camera crew wasn't following him, so it probably meant that he couldn't ask them for any help.

He sighed and stopped at the edge of the mountain to see that there were some footprints leading off to the east towards a large forest of the trees. Noah quickly glanced back at his team and the forest, judging the distance with his eyes. "Yeah," he muttered to himself, sliding down the slope to follow the footprints. "I think I can make it back pretty quickly."

He didn't have to run far to reach the forest, but the moment he entered he found it completely in the dark with only thin beams of light coming out from between the leaves. "Izzy?" he called out, walking forward, still following the footprints. "You there girl?" After he got no response, he coughed. "Come on Izzy, Owen misses you-!"

"Who are you?" A sudden voice came from the right of Noah, bringing him to halt. He quickly turned around to see a tall man of Indian descent glaring at him with narrowed eyes. He was wearing a thin light purple undershirt with white pants and white gloves. Along his left arm were some golden bangles and hanging from his waist were some strange white containers that looked like they had some arrows. In his hands was a large bow pointed straight at Noah.

"Woah!" Noah quickly held up his hands and backed away, terrified of being shot. "Don't shoot!"

The man didn't lower his bow and instead frowned. "You're a mage," he noted.

Noah blinked. "What?"

"Are you a part of this Holy Grail War?" he asked, his bow still pointed at Noah. "Where is your Servant?"

"I don't-!" Noah stiffened as the man suddenly pointed his bow in the air, as the air around them grew cold. Almost instinctively, he jumped to his right landing in a large snowbank just as something that looked like a giant bird flew right past him.

Noah popped his head out from under the snow and his eyes widened. What he could only describe as an angel had flown in from the sky and was currently in combat against the archer guy. The angel had a hood over her head so he couldn't see her face but in her hands was a large glowing lance and a small rounded shield attached to her left arm.

She jabbed her lance at the archer, who simply raised his bow and blocked the attack. He quickly jumped back and nocked an arrow. "Where's your Master?" he demanded, but without waiting for an answer he fired the shot.

The arrow sailed past the angel's face, but it caused her to pause. Both of them suddenly turned to Noah, who gulped. "Um… hi?"

The angel ignored the archer and flew at Noah, raising her lance in the air. Noah yelped and quickly scrambled to his feet before he began to run away. He could see that the archer wasn't following him. In fact, he had completely disappeared from his view. "What the heck is going-URK?!" He suddenly slammed into something hard and blacked out.

Xxx

"Noah… Noah…" Noah could hear a voice called out to him in his sleep. He tried to wave it away and go back to sleep. He had been having a nice dream for once-!

"Noah!" Noah felt a sharp pain on his head as if someone had hit him and his eyes flew open, to see that Izzy was inches away from his face. "I-Izzy?" he wondered aloud, glancing around to see that he was in her arms being carried bridal style back up the mountain and away from the forest. "Where…?" he started to ask a bit deliriously.

Izzy giggled. "I found you in the forest silly!" she explained. "You looked like you ran into a tree."

Noah blinked. "But… I saw two people," he tried to explain fruitlessly. "One had some sort of bow and the other had wings!"

"That sounds amazing!" Izzy exclaimed looking around. "Where are they?"

"They're…they're…" Noah held his head. "I guess… I might've just imagined the entire thing," he muttered to himself, just as Izzy made it back to the grinders and their teammates.

Noah looked at the other teams, before he checked on his own, to see that Team Victory were almost done while Team Amazon only had a small amount of their casing filled with Cody holding it. He couldn't help but laugh. "Cody's got a tiny sausage!" He laughed a little deliriously while pointing towards Team Amazon's sausage.

"At least my team has a sausage!" Cody shot back almost immediately.

Noah blinked and turned to his team's grinder to see that Owen had been eating all the meat that came out. Now the big guy looked like a sausage himself!

"Ugh…" Owen groaned. "Sooo spicy…" He burped.

"Dude?" Chris walked up to the team with a grin on his face. "That was raw meat. Not good!"

Alejandro scowled. "I have an idea," he said, the anger in his voice not going unnoticed by Noah. "We can ride Owen down the hill!"

"No way!" Courtney protested. "That's cheating. Forget it!"

"Owen has been stuffed with meat!" Chris contradicted. "I say he's fit for sausage duty!"

Alejandro's eyes quickly lit up. "Yes!" he cheered to himself, grinning.

By this time, Noah had finally gotten his bearings and had pushed himself out of Izzy's arms. His eyes widened when he noticed that Team Victory had almost filled their own sausage. "If we're going to do this then we'd better hurry," he said, pointing to Team Victory.

Alejandro nodded. "Everyone on!" he ordered. "I'll push him on."

Everyone on Team Chris, except Owen, nodded and quickly jumped on him. Alejandro quickly got behind him and began to push Owen towards the slope. "All aboard der wiener express!" Noah called out as they approached the slope.

Izzy laughed just as Alejandro pushed them of the edge and hopped on at the same time. "Yeah! Giddy up!" she cried.

Owen screamed as they slid down the slope. At the same time, Noah heard Chris shout something down to them as they were speeding away. "Um…" he said dryly, as Team Victory slid down on their own sausage. "Did he just say something about rabid mountain goats?"

A small baby goat jumped in the way of the two teams and roared, before jumping at all of them. They all screamed as the goat landed in DJ's arms. Noah didn't see what happened next as Owen sped away from Team Victory.

On the way down, Owen slammed into a couple of rocks but Noah didn't have time to think about it. He was too busy hanging on for his dear life.

Soon enough Owen slid through the finish line and began to head towards a large wooden platform. "Watch out!" Noah screamed, as the rest of his team also screamed in unison. Owen slammed headfirst into the wood and sent everyone flying. Noah landed roughly on his stomach onto the hard-packed snow.

He kinda just lied there while Chris explained the challenge. After about halfway, through his explanation, he joined his team, lined up near the wooden platform. Near the end, Chris tossed his team some lead helmets with metal spikes sticking out the topes. "Ugh!" Noah struggled to lift them. "These way a ton!"

"That they do," Chris agreed as he handed out the rest of the rewards. In the meantime, Noah was just trying to lift the helmet onto his head.

Once Chris's explanation was finished, they all climbed onto their dance boards, with Noah being one of the ones chosen to dance. He was in front of Cody, who was wearing the penalty lederhosen. "How are those hosen treating ya?" he asked with a chuckle. He had been making fun of Cody for most of the day and he wasn't about to stop now.

"It feels like someone gave my wedgie a wedgie," Cody complained.

Suddenly Chef blew his horn, startling the two. "Ow!" Noah cried, rubbing his head. "Do you mind? Headache over here."

Chef sneered. "Don't care," he said, before demonstrating the dance that they all had to perform.

Sierra latched on what to do instantly and she began to do her own dance to the beat, along with singing about Cody. "His butt is mine!" she finished pointing to the poor boy. Cody looked absolutely terrified.

"Wow," Noah said, as he began to dance. "Izzy might've finally met her match."

"I know right," Cody said miserably. "I wish I'd never have-!" He quickly clammed up.

Noah frowned. "What?"

Cody sighed. "Nothing," he said. "Forget it."

Noah would've probably pressed the issue if he hadn't heard Alejandro complimenting Leshawna. "What with you and Leshawna?" he asked him. "Giving the enemy a pep talk? Not cool."

"Very perceptive, my brilliant teammate," Alejandro said a compliment that Noah didn't buy for a second. "I'm working an angle that may benefit our team."

Noah was suspicious but was interrupted by Owen exclaiming, "I don't feel so hot…" and then getting shocked.

Soon enough the challenge started and Noah found himself up against Leshawna. He slapped her once, feeling a little proud of himself once she had gotten shocked. However that feeling quickly dissipated, as she suddenly pulled out some random dancing moves and kicked him off the dance floor. He screamed as he fell but luckily landed in a small snowbank which broke his fall.

"Ow…." He moaned. Well, it still hurt.

He joined Izzy and Tyler on the sidelines and soon Owen joined them, carrying the cooked sausage he had just barfed up. Why he didn't just throw it away, Noah didn't really know.

He watched the challenge eagerly as Alejandro was up against Sierra and Heather was against Leshawna. He didn't really understand what had happened, but a second later Leshawna was on the ground beating up Heather and Sierra had kicked Alejandro off of his platform. Noah frowned. To him it looked like Alejandro had taken a dive, but… well, he wasn't sure.

"Team Amazon wins!" Chris announced pointing towards Sierra.

As Sierra fell asleep on her platform, Noah confronted Alejandro. "Dude, seriously, what happened?" he asked.

"Heather sacrificed herself to distract me," Alejandro explained. "And her brilliant plan worked! I am most disappointed in myself."

Honestly, Noah didn't really buy it, but they were at least saved from elimination this round, as Leshawna had been the one to fall off the platform before Alejandro.

Still… he couldn't shake the nagging feeling he had about all of this.

Xxx

Everyone had been finally taken back to the plane after the challenge and Team Victory had been declared the losers, though it had yet to take off yet. However, Heather had cornered Alejandro. "I think you took a dive back there," she accused him. "And I want to why."

Alejandro merely smiled and crossed his arms. "And I think you took one too many slaps to the head."

"Ha!" Heather scoffed. "I know you're up to something."

Alejandro placed a hand under Heather's chin and lifted it up so they could see eye to eye. "Do you know how beautiful you look with that missing tooth? It really brings out the anger in your eyes."

"You!" Heather hissed. "That is so… Urrrghhhh!" She walked away angrily from him, her hands at her sides.

Meanwhile, Noah, who had just finished up a couple of his confessionals, walked up to Owen to see that he was chowing down on a steaming sausage. "Please tell me that's not the same sausage that you threw up," Noah said dully, as Owen gave him a guilty look in the middle of his chewing and Heather walked past trying not to barf.

"Noah!" Both Owen and Noah looked away from the sausage in surprise to see Chris walk into the compartment.

"Me?" Noah asked, pointing to himself.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Yes, you." He waved in a crew member who was carrying a small crate. The guy walked towards Noah and deposited the crate right into his arms, before leaving without a word.

Noah struggled with the weight for a second, before readjusting himself. "Um, what's this?" he scowled at Chris.

"I need you to move the equipment in the box into the cargo hold of the plane," Chris instructed, pointing towards the box in question. "Before we take off again, preferably."

"Um…" Noah raised an eyebrow. "Why do you suddenly want me to do this? Why not ask some of your numerous interns."

Chris's right eyebrow twitched. "Well thanks to _Tyler_ ," he said with a pained smile. "I've lost some interns in that avalanche to injuries, so I'm short some hands. And since you're the first person on that team that I noticed, you're going to do it. Unless you want to be kicked off the plane?"

Noah rolled his eyes. "Fine," he grunted, as he began to head towards the cargo hold.

Owen got up. "I can help!" he offered.

"Don't worry about it," Noah quickly assured Owen. "You just keep eating your… food and I'll be right back." Truth be told, he just didn't want to be with Owen in an enclosed space after seeing him eat that sausage. He was already not looking forward to sitting next to him in economy class.

"Okay…" Owen sat back down reluctantly, as Chris walked away without even thanking Noah.

Xxx

It only took Noah a little while to get into the cargo hold and by the time that he got there, there wasn't anyone inside. He looked around, trying to not let the nervousness show on his face. "Hello? Anyone there?" he called out just to check. He heard some skittering in the corner, which he chalked up to rats. Chris was never too keen on keeping vermin out if economy class was any indication.

Since Chris didn't give him any instruction on where to put the box, he just placed it carefully in the middle of the room, next to some other boxes. He let out a sigh and turned to leave, only to pause once - out of the corner of his eye – he noticed something shiny and red on the ground.

His curiosity piqued, Noah pushed aside some other boxes so that he could create a space where he could see it fully and blinked. He groaned. "Of course, Chris would have something like this here," he muttered, as he stared at a large pentagram drawn with, at least what looked like, red paint. "Probably wants to summons some sort of demon for the next challenge," he chuckled to himself, as he stepped forwards so that he was right in front of the circle, to get a better look at it.

"He was right to place a guard here."

Noah's eyes widened and he whirled around to see something that he never expected to see. A man wearing heavy gold and purple armor was standing in front of him, with a large dark purple sword brandished towards Noah's face. He had purple hair and thin purple eyes, which were currently suspiciously glaring at Noah.

Noah quickly raised his hands, just because it seemed like the right thing to do in that situation. "This… this is just another hallucination right?" he asked the man. "Like what happened in the forest?"

The man frowned and moved his sword forward so that it grazed Noah's cheek. Noah felt something hot where the sword touched and something run down his face and drip onto the ground. The boy's eyes widened.

Oh, so it was real.

At that moment, Noah could feel his legs shaking.

The man's head tilted to the right. "What should I do, Master?" he asked, though the question didn't seem like it was directed at Noah, but rather someone else. The man's eyes closed. "Of course. As you wish."

"So uh…" Noah said his mind racing. "Can I go now?"

"Sorry." The man shook his head and raised his sword above his head. "I truly dislike doing this, but it is what my master has ordered of me."

"Eep!" Noah squeaked out rather lamely, as he tried to take a step back and only managed to get tangle his feet and fall the ground, right on top of the pentagram.

A pinprick of fuzzy pain danced around his palm and suddenly the world seemed to slow.

 _HuMAn. ArE yoU to be My mAstEr?!_

"Huh?" Noah could only say to the voice that was echoing in his head.

 _PaTHetic. YOu arE nAUgHt bUt an inSigNiFiCAnt spEck of a hUman aRen't You?_

 _VEry weLl._

 _Do You wAnt tO liVe?_

"Y-yes," Noah managed to choke out.

 _GoOd._

 _ToGeTher, we sHall bEcoMe the raVagErs of thiS Holy Grail War._

Time returned to normal and, for a second, Noah wondered if he was dead. However, there was no pain save for a slight burning sensation on his left hand. He looked down just in time to see a red tattoo appear on his left hand.

Suddenly he heard the noise of armor shifting and he looked back at the man to see him backing away from him, but staring at a point above his head, cautiously.

Noah looked up.

A small fire was suspended in the air burning brightly and sending embers out. Noah watched as a thin arm reached out of nowhere, making the air ripple around it. The hand gripped the mask and seemed to push against it as, very slowly, a head pulled itself out of thin air. Soon a torso followed, then arms and then legs, before finally a large sword was drawn out. The person landed in front of Noah, holding their sword in front of them by its blue hilt. With a chill, Noah realized that the back of the blade had been outfitted with _bones_.

The person, themselves, didn't look all that imposing at first glance. She – Noah was pretty sure it was a she given the long blonde hair and body figure – was pretty short, only looking like she came up to Noah's shoulders. Her face was hidden behind flames, but extending out from her head were two curved black horns. Her hands and feet were equally monstrous, both of which were a blood-red color and had sharp black claws extending out from each finger and toe. She was wearing a yellow dress that Noah recognized as a kimono with intricate floral pattern. It hung loosely from her shoulders and revealed a white undershirt that hid her modesty. The most amazing thing about her were the flames that hung off her elbows, bathing everything in the cargo hold in a beautiful orange and yellow light.

"Hmph," the man stiffened. "To think that someone would be able to summon a servant without a chant…" He fell silent for a couple of seconds warily eyeing the girl's sword. "You cannot be of class Saber," he deduced, but of what Noah had no idea. "I'm of class Saber. What is your class warrior?"

Instead of answering, the girl suddenly swung the sword at the man's face. However, the man simply raised his own sword to block it, sending embers flying the moment their blades clashed. Some of the embers landed on some of the wooden boxes and they began to smoke.

"Berserker, then?" the man surmised, giving the girl a look. Again, instead of answering the girl began to wail on him, swing her weapon erratically. The man was on the defense, but easily parrying each strike.

Noah smelled smoke and looked around to see that most of the equipment inside the cargo hold had caught on fire. The box he had brought it, fell over and broke apart, scattering the rocks that were inside.

Their fight paused in the midst of the fire that was slowly overtaking the cargo hold. They both seemed at an impasse and both of them had realized it. The man's eyes flashed and he placed his sword in front of him. "Arrive at the farthest end," he whispered to himself, as his weapon began to glow. "Cross the boundary-!" He stopped suddenly and the glow faded. "As you wish, Master." With those words, he disappeared into gold dust.

The girl had stayed. Both Noah and her were in the middle of a blazing fire. She suddenly turned to him and, with a wave of her hand, the fire that had covered her face suddenly dissipated. He could see her face now and see that she actually looked rather young, maybe three or four years younger than him. She had yellow eyes with small red markings below them. She also was wearing some small black marbles as earrings.

"So," she said haughtily, giving Noah a look of disdain. "You are to be my master, huh?" She smirked and placed a hand on her chest. "Fine, then. You may call me Berserker."

And that's when it all clicked for Noah.

The pentagram. The horns. The monstrous hands and feet.

He had just summoned a demon.

For the third time that day, Noah blacked out.

* * *

 **Trivia**

 _Holy Grail War_

A competition, or war, that will give the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish-granting device, through a battle royale that features seven mages summon Heroic Spirits from the past as familiars to do battle with them. These Heroic Spirits are referred to as Servants while the mages that command that are referred to as Masters. These Servants can be classified as seven different standard classes: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Assassin, Rider, Caster, and finally Berserker. Only one of any class can be summoned during the Holy Grail War. The only way to win the Holy Grail War is to be the final Master and Servant pair left in the war.

* * *

 **Welcome to my newest fanfiction of Total Drama, Total Drama Fate.**

 **Edit(1/18/19): Everything past this point was written when I first posted this story primarily on the Total Drama section and I didn't label it as a crossover. However, after reviewing my story notes and disagreeing with my statement when I first posted this chapter, I've decided to move it. Everything in italics are things that only referenced where this story was originally.**

 _For those of you unaware, this is a crossover with the Fate series that is comprised of such shows like Fate/stay night, Fate/Zero, Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Extra just to name a few. The Fate universe is vast and there are a lot of works(trust me, most of the planning for this story was me scoring wiki pages). Unfortunately, I am by no means an expert of this universe and as much research as I can do, I'm sure there are going to be some mistakes I make along the way._

 _However, I have decided to post this in the Total Drama section and here is my explanation why. Like Total Danganronpa before it, I've decided to make this story very separate from what its crossover with. Meaning that there is no need to have an extensive knowledge about Fate to enjoy this story. In fact, it would probably be better if you knew nothing of Fate since some of the twists and reveals might not be as impactful if you already have some understanding of this universe._

 _This is first and foremost a Total Drama story which is why it is taking place during a canon season of Total Drama instead, which would probably be easier, some sort of AU. I want to tie it into something that people in this fandom already knew a lot about and honestly, World Tour is still probably my favorite season of the bunch._

 _So to reiterate, you DO NOT need a huge understanding of Fate to enjoy this story and it is why I'm mainly posting this in the normal Total Drama archive. However, if there's some criticism of this, I'll gladly move this over to the crossover section of the site._

 **Now that's all said and done, let me tell you… I'm incredibly excited about this story. This first chapter was a lot of fun to write and I'm trying to write shorter chapters because they end up being faster for me to write. Add in the fact that I'm basically copying down what occurs in the episode only in Noah's POV and it is a lot easier to write. My goal for word count in this chapter is to be between 2k and 5k words because I can write them faster. There might be a chapter or two that goes above, but that's my goal for this story. Writing 14k chapters can be quite draining for me.**

 **Anyway onto the content of the chapter itself… I've already revealed four Servants that are planned to be in the story(six if you count the two in the dream). Again, you could probably just do an easy google search an figure out who they all are, but try to keep who they are out of the reviews, please. I really want to have some fun reveals on who they are.**

 **Also, warnings, going to be some swearing, violence and most importantly… character deaths. And there are going to be some character deaths that certainly piss people off.**

 **No word on pairings yet, I'm keeping that a secret for now, but there surely be some.**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated. Given how quickly I finished this chapter I want to have review replies in each chapter, since its something I've always wanted to do!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Holy Grail War

No review replies this time, but a HUGE thank you to the eight people who followed this story! Eight! :D A special thank you to Lara2244, Toane07 Ver2.0 and That British Guy for reviewing!

* * *

When Noah woke up, he found himself in an extravagant looking room. One that he recognized immediately. So when he turned to the right, he wasn't surprised to find that Chris was sitting right next to him, sipping a latte.

Chris noticed that Noah was staring at him blearily. "Noah!" The host beamed. "How are you doing man?"

Noah blinked the sleep out of his eyes and squinted. "C-Chris?" he said. "What are you… What happened?"

"Well I'm here to offer you my congratulations," Chris said, standing up from the couch and spreading his hands. "Congratulations on summoning a Servant and becoming a Master of the Holy Grail War!" Chef walked over to Noah and tossed some confetti into his face, some of which got into his mouth.

Noah spat out the offending strips of colored paper and gagged. "What the heck was that about?" he snarled at Chris. "Holy Grail War? Servant? What the fuck are you talking about?"

Chris smirked. "Come on, Noah. You don't remember what happened in the cargo hold?"

"Cargo…" Noah's voice died in his throat and he sprung up. "Wait! What happened?! The entire thing was on fire! And I… I summoned some sort of monster-!"

"Calm down!" Chef snapped, brandishing his large butcher knife which made Noah flinch. "I put out the fire when I came down to get you out. I was lucky your dumbass Servant didn't skewer me when I did." He snorted. "You better learn how to control her, you hear?"

" _Hmph_!" Noah jumped when he heard a voice in his head. " _That male human is certainly a simpleton. He should've had enough sense to piss himself the moment he saw me."_

Noah stared at the ceiling, blankly. "Holy shit, I'm going crazy."

"Ah." Chris nodded in understanding. "I'm assuming that you just heard a voice in your head?"

Noah blinked. "Yeah. How did you guess?"

"Your Servant is probably just in Spirit Mode and communicating to you through telepathy," Chris explained. "Can you bring her out?"

" _Tell the little man with horrid hair and bad smells that I will not adhere to his demands_ ," a reply was heard inside Noah's head and he could practically see the smirk forming on her face.

"Um… she said no," Noah translated.

"She's a Berserker," Chef grunted, sitting down in a nearby chair. "I'm surprised she can even retain a sense of any sort of consciousness or sanity."

"Okay, okay, pause." Noah held up his hands. "What the hell is this all about? I've got a girl talking in my head and the two of you are treating like all of this is completely normal!"

Chris sighed. "Fine," he said, reluctantly. "I guess we can start at the beginning." He took a deep breath. "You're a magus, Noah."

Noah gave the host a dry look. "Don't think you can try to explain things which such a shitty reference like that," he snapped.

"I'm serious!" Chris looked slightly irritated. "You're a magus! It's the only way you could summon a Servant! You have the ability to use magecraft." When he saw Noah continue to frown, he sighed and gestured for Chef to hand him something. His co-host handed him a large book, which he then shoved into Noah's hands. "Just do some research," he ordered Noah. "That book can teach you better than I ever can. But long story short: you can use magic. Congratulations."

"Magic doesn't exist," Noah replied.

"Oh?" Chef rolled his eyes. "How do you explain what happened in the cargo hold? Or why there's a voice in your head?"

"…Fine," Noah said begrudgingly, tucking the book under his arm. "I'm assuming this isn't the whole story, right?"

"Yep!" Chris cheerfully answered. "You've just been accepted into the Holy Grail War! Congratulations! You've been accepted into the second stage of Total Drama World Tour!"

"And what exactly is the Holy Grail War?" Noah asked, not really feeling as lucky as Chris made it out to be.

"It's a battle royale," Chef explained. "You and six other magus summon Servants and then have the Servants battle each other until there is only one Master and Servant pair left. Like you and Berserker." Seeing Noah's confused look, he opted to explain further. "There are seven classes that you can summon from during the Holy Grail War and only one of each of those classes can be summoned. Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, Caster and finally Berserker." He gave Noah a nod. "Your Servant And you're her Master."

"These Servants are actually Heroic Spirits from the past," Chris continued to explain. "People from myths and legends or people who have done some extraordinary things in their lifetimes to classify them as Heroic Spirits."

Noah blinked. "So someone like say…" He thought for a moment. "Archimedes could be a Heroic Spirit and summoned as a Servant."

"I don't know why you chose that guy but yeah." Chris nodded. "That's the idea."

Noah recoiled as he remembered the girl back in the cargo hold, assuming she was his Servant. "She's a Heroic Spirit?" he asked. At the back of his mind, he could hear her growling but he chose to tune it out.

"Well Heroic Spirits come in all sorts of different flavors and personalities." Chris nudged Noah. "Looks like you got one of the more insane ones pal. Sucks to be you."

" _I believe that his tongue would be best fried and eaten with some sake_ ," Noah heard Berserker say in his mind. " _Human cut off the cur's tongue_."

Noah ignored her. "Okay," he said with a nod. "And what are these?" He held up his left hand, showing off the red tattoos that he suddenly had somehow.

"Command Seals," Chris explained. "The link between you and your Servant. They can also be used to give your Servant one absolute command that they could never disobey." Chris's eyebrows wiggled. "Just be careful, you've only got three. Once you lose all of them, then you lose any connection you used to have with your Servant."

Noah collapsed back into the sofa as he began to mull over all of this new information one at a time. He was a magus, which he assumed meant he could use some form of magic. He was a part of something called the Holy Grail War that apparently Chris and Chef knew about, which was nothing more than a battle royale against six other opponents with Servants of their own. It was possible that the guy he had met in the cargo hold was a servant since he called himself Saber. These Servants were some sort of heroes from the past, but he had no idea what kind of hero his Servant was. And finally, he had some tattoo on his left hand that allowed him to give a command to his Servant that they couldn't disobey, but he only had three of them. If he lost all three then he would lose his connection to Berserker.

Noah glanced at Chris. "So what's the point of all of this?" he asked, suspiciously. "I'm already in this competition trying to get one million dollars. What could be better than that? One billion?"

Chris gave him a thin smile. "A wish."

Noah stared at him. "A wish," he repeated, incredulously.

"A wish for both you and your Servant," Chef corrected.

"A wish," he said again. "Do you realize how stupid that sounds?"

"Um… Hello?" Chris raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think its called the Holy Grail War?"

"Isn't the Holy Grail an Arthurian legend?" Noah pointed out, still skeptical of this entire thing. "Meaning it's not _real_?"

"Magic wasn't real to you until you summoned a Servant out of thin air from a summoning circle," Chris countered. "What makes you think those legends aren't real?"

"Just a footnote, but…" Noah frowned. "I never said I believed in magic."

Chris rolled his eyes. "The Holy Grail," he began to explain. "is an omnipotent wish-granting device. It's what set up this entire war and its grants its pair of winners any wish it would like." The host smiled, slimily. "Doesn't sound better than a million dollars? You could just wish for all of the money in the world?"

"Not really," Noah said. "For one thing, I'm still lost. There are six other Masters?" He looked around carefully. "On this plane?" he assumed.

Chef nodded. "Six others, though they may or may not have already summoned their Servant."

"Are you going to tell me who they are?" Noah asked.

"Nope," Chris replied with a grin.

"For drama, I'm assuming?"

"No," Chris admitted. "I actually have no idea who they are."

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't that mean I have a disadvantage?"

"I guess." Chris shrugged, then grinned. "So how about it? You want in, Noah?"

Noah took a deep breath. "Just a question," he said, holding up a single finger. "What would happen if I quit. Used up all of my Command Seals and left this stupid 'second' competition?"

Chef frowned. "I wouldn't do that," he said, tersely. "Your Servant is a Berserker. Those command seals are the only thing holding her from killing you or going on a rampage. She can't be controlled without those things." He looked grim. "Even if you try to withdraw, you're still considered a part of the War, so you'll still have a target on your back."

Noah sighed. It didn't look like he had a way out at the moment. "Well then… I guess I'm in." He glared at Chris. "For now."

Xxx

After Chris assured Noah that he wouldn't tell anyone else about being a Master, Noah left saying that he wanted to study the book that Chris had given him. To make sure that Chris was telling the truth about magic. Chris had nearly laughed because Noah couldn't hide the curiosity out of his voice, eager to learn about magecraft. He also made sure to tell Noah to not tell anyone else about the Holy Grail War, since Chris still wanted it to be a secret. In return, Chris promised Noah to try to protect him from elimination ceremonies. It wasn't that big of a deal since Chris had been planning to do that anyway.

"Well, all's well that ends well!" Chris exclaimed, clapping Chef on the back, once Noah had left.

Chef scowled. "I don't like this," he said.

Chris looked a little shocked. "But we've been planning this, since the start of Total Drama, buddy!" he cried. "We can't give up now when we're so close." He threw an arm over Chef's shoulders. "This is the end game Chef. We're so close."

"Indeed," a new voice spoke up, as Chris and Chef looked behind them to see a young girl, wearing a dark blue tracksuit and a wooden kendo sword on her back. Her skin was pale and her black hair was tied in a bun on the side of her head with some rope, but still extended out all the way to the ground in a ponytail. "You two are close."

Chris beamed. "So are you finally agreeing to see this through the end, Ruler?"

She frowned. "Don't call me that," she said. "I am no Ruler." She sighed. "And no. I said I would only watch to see where this all plays out, before deciding my stance in this War." She chuckled lightly. "Still, to say I am not interested in that boy would be a lie with _her_ as a Servant."

Chef shivered, uncharacteristically. "I'm glad I knew you were around," the man admitted. "If I didn't I would've left Noah in there to rot."

"It probably would've been better if you had," The girl admitted. "You didn't tell him everything. The true sacrifice that lies in the Holy Grail War… well, that's going to be something he'll have to discover by himself."

Xxx

"Noah," Alejandro cornered him, the moment he walked back into economy class. "Where were you?"

For a split second, Noah debated telling him everything but decided against it. He still had some suspicions about Alejandro and telling Owen, Tyler or Izzy… yeah, that didn't seem like it would end too well. "Sorry…" he said trying to quickly think of a good excuse. "The box that Chris wanted me to take was heavier than it looked. I ended up hurting my left hand." He shook his bandaged hand for emphasis.

Alejandro narrowed his eyes, as he glanced at the book in his hands before he shifted over to the back of his left hand. Noah winced, realizing that his left hand was pretty suspicious. Chef had bandaged it in order to make it easier for him to hide his Command Seals and, by extension, his involvement in the Holy Grail War. But there was no way that Alejandro would buy that excuse.

However, to his surprise, Alejandro just smiled understandingly. "Well at least you're okay," he said, clapping a hand on Noah's shoulder. "You're an invaluable member of our team."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say," he replied, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

Alejandro just gave him a smile and walked away, presumably to get some sleep before they all arrived at their destination.

Noah took a seat next to Owen. "Wow…" Owen marveled at Noah's left hand. "Are you okay?"

Noah waved him off. "I'm fine," he answered, as he opened his book to its first page and frowned.

Owen looked over his shoulder. "That seems complicated," he noted.

"Mhm." Noah nodded, not really paying any attention to Owen, so he just moved away from Noah and started up a ridiculous conversation with Izzy.

Originally Noah had assumed that magic was just waving around a wand and saying a spell, but the book made it seem a lot more complicated than he had thought. The entire first chapter ended up just explaining the basics of magic – or magecraft, as it was apparently called.

Still, Noah was able to follow some of it. Or at least the basics. In a way, magecraft had more things in common with science, which Noah could understand, than actual magic from stories. No waving a wand or anything like that. Most the first chapter were about Magic Circuits, a sort of nervous system for magus that convert the life in them into Magical Energy. The book said that the number of Magical Circuits in someone's body was proportional to how good there were at magecraft.

Noah glanced around Economy Class to find that everyone was already asleep. He huddled himself in a corner in an attempt to practice. "Okay," he whispered to himself, placing his right hand on the pages of the book. On that single page was a rune, that Noah had read would light up if he channeled Magical Energy into it, as long as he did it correctly.

Again checking to make sure no one was watching, he tried to imagine "magical energy," flowing from his hand into the pages of the book. The results were immediate – bright red lines began to crisscross across his hand and the rune began to glow dimly. Noah's eyes widened, impressed by his ability, but frowned a second later. He removed his hand and turned back a few pages. "It says that Magic Circuits are supposed to be a light green," he muttered to himself, staring at his hand. "Why are mine…?"

And then Owen farted.

Noah waved a hand in front of his face to waft the smell away from him, as he chalked the color of his Magic Circuits to just something that the book didn't bother to explain. He was too tired from the day's craziness to dwell on it anymore. Learning that magic existed was enough without adding in the challenge and Berserker.

Speaking of which…

Noah closed the book. "Berserker," he whispered, quietly. "You there?"

" _Yes, Master_." The vitriol in her voice made him wince. " _You can speak within your mind to communicate."_

Noah hesitated. " _Fine,_ " he conceded. " _I was wondering what you make about all of this._ "

" _I know naught about magecraft, human,_ " she sneered.

" _No, I meant about… the Holy Grail War_ ," Noah replied. " _What's your opinion on this? Judging from the way you act, you don't seem to like that I'm your Master_."

" _Of course not, idiot!_ " Berserker snapped, making Noah blink. He was a little surprised that she sounded a lot less condescending now, instead sounded more like a bratty child. Which in his opinion still fit. " _I am an oni and you are a human. You are meant to cower before me! I am not happy about being shackled to a mere human!_ "

" _Oni?_ "

Berserker was silent and Noah had a feeling she was stewing in anger.

" _Fine._ " Noah rolled his eyes. " _So you're only with me in order to get a wish from the Holy Grail._ "

" _Correct._ "

" _Figures._ " Noah sighed to himself. " _Well, what's your wish?_ "

" _What does it matter to you?_ " Berserker snapped.

He shrugged. " _I don't have a wish at the moment,_ " he drawled. " _So I was just wondering if you had one._ "

" _Hmph…"_ Berserker was silent for a moment before Noah heard her snicker and he flinched. " _My wish is simple. I want to wish for an army to continue my plunder of human cities and rebuild my palace on my mountain again._ "

"Right…" Noah muttered aloud. "I think I'll just go to sleep."

" _You do that. I need you to be rested for the next day's battles."_

Noah rolled his eyes, but couldn't shake the feeling of fear he had after listening to Berserker's wish. A demon, or as she called herself an oni, wishing for an army to attack humans. For a second, he debated on withdrawing from the war to just keep his focus on the competition for a million dollars, before he quickly discarded the idea. Despite his initial feelings, the idea of learning magic was an appealing concept to him and Chef had warned him about letting Berserker loose. After learning of her wish, Chef was probably right.

Besides, as long as he had Berserker, he could just have her fight. Judging by what Chris had told him, there was no need for him to start fighting since only a Master and Servant pair could win the Holy Grail.

As long as he didn't get hurt, then he could see this Holy Grail War being an interesting experience alongside Total Drama World Tour.

Yawning, he leaned back against the metal of the plane and succumbed to sleep.

Xxx

" _Charge!" Berserker screamed, pointing her Bone Sword towards the ancient Japanese city, as flames danced around her. A bunch of stubby, short, green and black skinned monsters wearing old loincloths and with short horns on their heads, all raised their clubs and cheered. They began to charge into the city, as people screamed and began to run away. Some of the monsters caught up to the fleeing citizens and slammed their clubs into their heads bashing their brains in._

 _A couple of warriors tried to defend the city and drew their blades, slashing at any monster that even approached them. However, the monsters soon grew a little smarter and groups of them began to throw themselves onto the bodies of the warriors, pinning them to the ground and quickly killing them._

 _Berserker watched the entire disaster with a wide grin on her face. Anytime a human tried to attack her, she would swing her sword, sending a blast of fire, charring their skin and killing them instantly. She snorted. The humans here weren't any challenge. She would have to get farther into the city to meet anybody who would give her a challenge including those samurai that were quickly rising in power. At least what she had heard from her subordinates. She couldn't care less about human politics._

 _The city was in chaos thanks to her. Some of the monsters were bringing back gold, intricate artwork, and some unconscious females. A couple of her more stronger subordinates, dragged over some of the weapons they had won and deposited them next to the bodies._

 _Berserker looked behind her to see another female oni, with much shorter horns than her and short black hair. Her face was flushed since she was obviously drunk. Berserker frowned. "You shouldn't be here," she said, turning back to the chaos._

" _Ah…" the oni lifted a bowl to her lips and swallowed some more sake. "I just wanted to watch you lead. You are doing a wonderful job, by the way."_

 _Berserker scowled, not missing the sarcasm in the other oni's voice. "I was hoping it would be better," she replied, kicking one of the dead bodies in the crotch. "Even with our numbers the humans in the inner city are still giving us trouble."_

 _The oni smiled, though Berserker could easily see that she was worried. "I trust you to be the ringleader of our small group. I mean…" She tilted her head. "you are the one who knows what it means to be a true oni."_

 _Berserker narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by a sudden shout coming from the chaos. She turned around to see a man running towards her with a katana and, unlike most of the others, wearing armor. With a grin, she drew her Bone Sword and swung the sword at the man._

Xxx

Noah's eyes snapped open and before he could even analyze the contents of his most recent dream, he felt something furry in his mouth. In a panic, he spat the rat out of his mouth. "Ah!" he yelped, using his hands to try and wipe off any stray fur from his tongue. After he was certain it was all gone, he calmed down slightly and scowled. "Ugh, stupid Economy class," he grumbled irritably.

* * *

 **Trivia**

Berserker

One of the seven main classes of Servants and part of the Four Calvary Classes. Servants in this class are Heroic Spirits who have once gone berserk once in their lifeline and now have the Madness Enhancement trait. This trait sacrifices their consciousness and sanity for a huge power boost, though some servants may be able to retain those senses even while gaining that trait. This class is often considered the most powerful of all the seven classes but comes with the drawback of the Servants being hard to control without Command Seals.

* * *

 **Current Known Master/Servants**

Noah – Berserker (True Name: ?)

? – Saber(True Name: ?)

* * *

 **A shorter chapter this time and mostly filled with exposition, unfortunately. Don't worry, the action will return next chapter when the teams journey to the AMAZON. We may meet another Servant (or two)… or nothing will happen at all! Who knows? :o**

 **This chapter was a little annoying to write and for a couple of days after finishing I debated on trashing it. Mostly because of the magic system. It ends up being a pretty complicated magic system in the Fate universe, so I didn't want to overload that information on to this chapter when really it didn't matter that much. Truth be told I just wanted some of the Masters to use magecraft so that there would be some more varied fights between Total Drama contestants and not only the Servants. But hey, feel free to ask any question in reviews or if there are any mistakes I made you can also tell me in the reviews and I can fix em.**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Am-AH-zon Battle

* * *

Review Replies

Toaneo07 Ver2.0: Yeah that's the angle I'm going for. I am a fan of her in fgo(despite not having her), but I'm trying to play on more of a serious version of her over the one that I find presented in the game. I have no idea if it's any good though xD

Felix Fiori: Thanks! I have some big plans for twists and turns in this story along with an antagonist that I'm sure no one will ever see coming xD.

Xxx

The beginning of the next challenge passed by rather quickly for Noah and with little fanfare. They landed in the middle of the Amazon and Chris had explained their next challenge. Again, Noah wondered the point of all this with the Holy Grail War looming over his head but quickly decided that he since he was still in the running for the million dollars there was no point in giving up.

"Whatcha ya think? Left?" Tyler asked his team pointing to the path that Team Victory was walking down before he nodded. "Yeah, eh. Left. Left is definitely good." Without even discussing it with the rest of the team, he began to follow Team Victory down the path.

Everyone else on Team Chris just glanced at each other and shrugged. They had no problems with going left. They all walked down the left path leaving Team Amazon behind.

Noah was behind Owen and Izzy, as they were talking with each other excitedly, as Alejandro slid up next to him. Noah gave him a dull look, but that didn't stop Alejandro from giving his teammate a smile. "So, Noah," he said. "How long is your hand going to be bandaged? Chef told me that I only had to keep my eyepatch on for this challenge, so your hand must be a lot worse." He tapped his eyepatch for emphasis, which Noah had heard he had gotten from Owen earlier that morning.

"Oh, uh…" Noah rubbed his hand which was wrapped up with a cloth bandage. He silently cursed the fact that it was so obvious looking. "Chef said it would probably take until the end of this season before I can take it off."

Alejandro looked sympathetic. "Sounds terrible, _mi amigo_."

"Mhm." Noah nodded unenthusiastically. "Totally."

"Ooo, Ooo!" Izzy waved her hand wildly in the air while looking back at Noah. "Have you tried cutting it off and replacing it with a hook?"

"Nope," Noah replied dryly. "But if we come across a chainsaw in this forest I'll consider it."

"Cool!" Izzy cackled.

"A hook would be so cool, Izzy!" Owen agreed.

Tyler sighed happily. "Lindsay…" he said dreamily, not even paying attention to the conversation behind him.

"How long do you think until Lindsay forgets that he exists again?" Alejandro whispered to Noah.

Noah smirked. "Three more challenges, I'd say."

Alejandro laughed and moved up to be at the front of the group with Tyler, as Noah's smile fell and he glanced at his teammates warily, recalling Chris's words. Any one of them could be Masters with Servants of their own. Along with the other team that gave him eleven people to watch out for. He absently scratched his left hand. " _Berserker_ ," he thought. " _You there?_ "

" _Yes?_ " Berserker immediately answered. " _I was sleeping._ "

Noah blinked and felt a little guilty. " _You need to sleep?_ "

" _No,_ " she replied. " _But I wanted to. So I did._ "

Noah mentally sighed. " _You're not interested in what I'm doing right now?_ "

" _No,_ " she repeated. " _I have little interest in your reality show. Just point me to who you want killed and I'll follow for now._ "

" _How do you know what reality tv is? Or better yet what a tv is?_ " Noah asked.

" _When Servants are summoned they are granted knowledge of this era's information by the Holy Grail._ " She laughed. " _I could probably fly that rickety plane you sleep in for a few minutes before crashing._ "

" _Let's not try that,_ " Noah responded, just before he caught sight of Chris standing on a tall wooden platform nearby. " _Ok, it's challenge time. I'll ask later._ "

" _I don't trust that man,_ " Berserker warned. " _You shouldn't either._ "

" _What do you mean?_ " Noah asked, but Berserker did not answer, so he made his way up the ladder to join his team with Chris.

"Where's the hanging on thingy part?" Tyler asked pointing to the rope.

Chris just gave the jock a bemused look. "Hanging on thingy?" he asked.

Tyler groaned. "You know… the riding stick? The grabby whatchamacallit?" He groaned again. "The zipper buckle handle!"

Chris chuckled. "Getting colder."

Alejandro pushed Tyler aside. "We do not need any T-bar!" he announced, with the usual bravado while pumping a fist into the air. "We are Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Really Hot." He reached down to his pants and undid his belt buckle. He then looped the belt around the wire and shouted, "Arriba!" before sliding down the long line and disappearing behind a grove of trees.

"Whatever you say, Al!" Owen yelled, excitedly, gripping the rope with his two hands. Noah noticed this and tried to warn Owen, but he was too late. Owen began to ride the wire down, but halfway through his hands caught fire and he screamed in pain. The wire began to strain under Owen's weight and he ended up sliding right into the water. He stayed underwater for a second, before jumping out and hugging the wire with his entire body, with piranhas biting his flesh. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"Oh yeah!" Chris suddenly decided to chime in as he, Tyler and Izzy glanced down at the water with a little fear. "There may or may not be piranhas in the water!"

Noah glanced down at the water a little apprehensively. "Then how do we get across?" he asked aloud, watching as Owen dragged himself onto the beach.

Tyler perked up. "Hey, I have an idea!" He pulled down his pants.

Noah averted his eyes. "Whoa slow down there tiger. Lindsay isn't anywhere near us."

Tyler didn't reply and instead looped his pants around the wire and gripped its legs, creating a makeshift T-bar.

"This should be interesting," Chris noted, as he, Noah and Izzy watched Tyler very closely, convinced that it wouldn't work.

"Yeah!" Tyler jumped off the platform and began to slide down. "Woo! Zipli-Uh-oh!" His pants caught on fire and turned to ash in his hands very quickly. He fell into the water and a second later jumped out with piranhas latched onto his own butt. "Piranhas!"

"He's got good vertical," Noah pointed out with a smirk, as Tyler pulled himself onto the beach. He was on the other side with Owen, both of them just lying on the sand in pain.

"For a guy leaping out of the water?" Chris replied with a grin. "Yeah." He watched as Tyler pulled a piranha off his tongue and tossed it back into the water. "Alright," he said, addressing Noah and Izzy. "Who's next!"

"Izzy has a plan!" Izzy announced and, before Noah could react, he found himself stuffed into a large bag headfirst. The next thing he knew, he felt himself flying through the air along with two startled yelps coming from beneath him. And then silence.

"Hello-Ah!" Izzy dumped him out of the backpack with a large grin. "Ow…" he groaned, rubbing his head.

"Good plan, eh?" Izzy said, excitedly, as Noah noticed that they were at the other end of the wire, where Alejandro was waiting impatiently.

"I guess," Noah grumbled, as Owen and Tyler joined them. "But next time a little warning would be nice."

Izzy merely looked confused. "But then it wouldn't be fun!" she whined.

"Fun does not mean bodily harm," he pointed out.

"Hey!" Tyler argued. "At least you guys didn't fall into the water." He tenderly touched his bottom. "Ow…"

"Here." A cameraman tossed Tyler some replacement clothes. "Chris doesn't want you to be walking around the Amazon half naked."

"Oh thank god." Tyler pulled them on.

"Do you have food?" Owen asked hopefully. "Water?"

The cameraman shook his head, while the boom operator next to him chewed on a Big Mac. "No. Chris wants you guys to try and find food yourselves. Well…" He sniggered. "If you can."

Owen sighed.

Alejandro seemed a little impatient as he tapped his foot. "This is great and everything," he scowled. "But can we get moving, team? Who knows how far Team Victory have gotten while we've been staying here?!"

"Seven hundred and forty-three meters," Izzy answered immediately.

Alejandro stared at her. "…Right." He shook his head. "Let's get going." The rest of the team nodded and began to follow Alejandro down the path.

Xxx

It took all of Heather's willpower to not smack Cody the moment that they were caught by the Zing-Zings. Her face and mouth still hurt from the beating she had received from Leshawna and now he found herself tied up next to Sierra and Gwen. Completely crazy on her right and goth girl on her left. What a day.

For a second, she debated on using magecraft to escape from her bindings, before quickly dismissing it. She didn't have any jewels or mystic codes on her body, so it wasn't like she could use magecraft at the moment. Not only that but the idea of revealing magecraft on live television… well, if the Tohsaka family didn't already hate her immediate family enough, then doing something like that would definitely get her murdered.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sierra who suddenly shoved herself into her side. "Ouch!" she hissed. "Quit it!" She turned towards Gwen. "Gwen you're the closest. You get Cody's flashlight."

Gwen glared at Cody. "You are not allowed to enjoy this," she warned the geek and Cody merely gave her a nervous grin and nodded.

Heather cringed as Gwen threw out each item in Cody's pocket, naming each one, until she pulled out a pair of glasses. "X-Ray Glasses?" Gwen said, raising an eyebrow.

"What color are Cody's undies?" Heather asked with a snort.

Gwen placed them on her face before letting out a scream and pulling the glass off her face. Cody gave her a sheepish grin. "Who wears undies in the Amazon?"

Heather's mouth fell open as Sierra asked, "Can I borrow those glasses?"

After a moment to catch her breath, Gwen put her hand back into Cody's pocket. She beamed. "I think I got it-Ow!" She pulled her hand out to see that Cody's EpiPen had somehow pierced her hand.

"You'll be okay, I swear," Cody assured Gwen. "It's just like a big shot of adrenaline."

"How big?" Gwen asked nervously.

Courtney, who had noticed something in Cody's other pocket, stuck her hand into it and pulled out a flashlight. "Oohh…" Cody realized once he had noticed it. "Back _left_ pocket."

Heather could only groan.

Xxx

It was almost dusk and Noah hadn't gotten any more words out of Berserker. Granted it wasn't like he was actively trying, as he marched through the jungle with his team. The jungle was humid and he was sweating buckets, but Alejandro kept pushing the team forward into the depths trying to catch up with Team Victory. However, they never saw them which gave Noah the impression that they were probably deeper into the jungle compared to them.

"Food…" Owen groaned, who had resorted to crawling on all fours just to keep pace with the group.

They all stumbled upon a small clearing, as Alejandro stopped them. "It's almost dusk," he said to everyone. "We can make camp here and catch up to Team Victory later."

"Need rest," Owen moaned, falling into a heap in the clearing. "And water… ugh… Nachos would be killer right now."

"Sure," Noah said with a smirk, happy to finally get the chance for a sarcastic quip. "All we're missing is chips, beef, tomatoes, cheese, salsa…"

"Hey, hey slow down," Izzy interrupted. "I'm making a list."

"No problem," Noah drawled. "Just make sure to grab some silverware and napkins. We're in the Amazon and that means eating in style."

"No time for that," Alejandro cut it. "Tyler. Izzy. I need you two to collect wood so we can make a fire." He turned to Noah. "Noah, you and Owen need to gather leaves and see if you can find any food. With the wood, I'm going to try and create a fire for the night!" He clapped his hands. "Everybody understand?!"

"Sir yes, sir!" Both Tyler and Izzy said at the same time, while saluting.

"Got it." Noah nodded a little unenthusiastically.

"Food…." Owen drooled.

"Well then let's go, Team Chris!" Alejandro said, pumping a fist into the air. Tyler cheered, before running back into the jungle in search of some leaves. Owen followed him still crawling. Izzy was about to follow them, but Noah quickly stopped her.

"Hey, Izzy," Noah said. "You mind if I borrow your notepad and pencil?"

"Oh, what this?" Izzy tossed them into Noah's hands. "These things just appear in my hands for some reason! I don't even know where they come from!" With a cackle, she leaped into the forest.

"I bet," Noah muttered, rolling his eyes and walking into the jungle. Once he figured he was far enough away from everyone else, he pulled out the notepad and wrote down the rune in the book on the paper. _Dagaz_ was what the rune was called.

He ripped out the paper and channeled magic energy into it, frowning when all that happened was that the rune lit up slightly, acting like some sort of small flashlight.

Wow, so incredible.

He snorted and shoved the paper and pencil into his pockets. He had read about another spell that was a lot easier to perform and didn't require for him to write a rune, but he had some reservations about trying it out in broad daylight.

With a sigh, he looked around for some fruit or just about anything that would feed Owen's gluttonous appetite. He came across some trees that seemed to contain food, but with his limited knowledge of Amazon plants, there wasn't any way for him to figure out if they were poisonous or not.

Defeated, Noah wandered back to the clearing to see that Tyler and Izzy had returned with some branches, while Owen placed some fruit he had found on the ground. Alejandro was working on building a fire.

Sensing that he wasn't needed, he sat down next to a tree to rest, just as he heard a voice com from one of Tyler's pockets. " _The Zingys. Caught in the tree. Tied up hands. And Cody's pants. There's trouble is big!_ " It was obviously Gwen's voice, though she sounded a lot more hyperactive than Noah was used to.

Tyler pulled the walkie-talkie out of his pocket and pressed the button on the side. "Way to go, Cody!"

" _Thank you_!" Cody's voice came from the other side.

Gwen continued to blabber some nonsense, before Courtney finally spoke up. " _Gwen epipened herself,_ " she explained. " _We need help!_ "

" _Emergencies only!_ " Chris replied back.

" _We're being held by spearpoint by the Zing-Zings,_ " Heather hissed from the other end. " _Help. Us. Now!_ "

" _We're in first place!_ " Lindsay's suddenly shouted. " _Hi, Tyler!_ " Tyler waved despite the fact that Lindsay couldn't see him.

" _Okay! Team Amazon remain calm and…_ " A familiar ding was heard from the walkie-talkie that made Noah and everyone else around freeze.

" _You must be joking,_ " Heather said.

Owen strode up next to Tyler. "Do we have to sing back-up?" he asked.

" _Nope,_ " Chris replied. " _This one is all Amazon! But, since Gwen needs to let some of that adrenaline out, let's have her do a nice little rap. And Heather, I expect to hear you do a solo at the end._ " Noah could see Chris grinning from ear to ear. " _And… begin!_ "

Noah only heard the faint sound of guitars, before Tyler tucked the walkie-talkie back into his pocket. "Man, we got lucky!" Tyler cheered. "No singing for us today!"

"Aw…" Owen looked crestfallen. "I like singing."

"Um…" Noah raised an eyebrow. "That sounded like guitars at the end there. If the Zing-Zings really haven't seen people before, how do they have instruments from this century?"

Tyler shrugged. "Maybe they had some nice people give it to them!" he suggested.

"How would they have done that if they hadn't ever met another person before?" Noah drawled.

"…Magic?" Tyler said sheepishly.

Noah stared at him. "You're just as bad as DJ with his curse," he groaned.

"Fantástico!" Noah looked over to the clearing to see that Alejandro had finally finished the fire. "The fire is finished!" He looked over at Noah and Owen. "Did you two find any food?"

Noah shrugged, while Owen held up some bark. "Is bark edible, Al?" he asked.

Alejandro cringed. "No. I don't believe it is, Owen."

"Oh." Owen eyed the piece of bark in his hands. "Still looks good," he decided, taking a bite out of the wood.

Noah rolled his eyes.

Xxx

"Grrrr…."

Owen's eyes snapped open and he looked around nervously after hearing something growl. Night had already fallen and all of Team Chris were huddled around the fire trying to catch some sleep. "Is that coming from the fire?" he asked, pointing to the fire in front of him.

Noah sat up and looked around nervously. "Fires rarely growl," he replied.

" _Hahaha!_ " Noah could hear Berserker laughing in his head, but he didn't have the time to wonder what she was laughing at.

"Al built it," Owen reasoned. "Maybe Spanish fires growl?" He heard another growl, this time to his left, as the rest of the team sat up from their restless sleep.

"What is that?" Alejandro asked.

Owen blew on the fire to make it brighter, illuminating a wider area to reveal that six giant worms had surrounded the team. Noah froze, as one of them crawled a little bit forward and fired some snot at the fire, putting it out, succumbing their surroundings into darkness.

They all screamed as they heard the worms crawl forward.

Alejandro was the first one to react. "Everyone split up!" Noah heard him yell in the darkness. "Try to confuse them and split them up! Then meet back here!"

"Got it, sir!" Noah heard Izzy laugh, before hearing some rustle of leaves. Next to him, Owen and Tyler were screaming as they ran around in a panic.

Quickly deciding to go it alone for now, Noah dove to the right into some bushes and began to run with all of his might. " _Berserker!_ " he yelled into his head. " _A little help here?!_ "

" _Call me when there's a servant to battle,_ " she replied, quickly. " _I don't fight mere insects._ "

Noah wanted to scream but bit his tongue. Once the sounds of screaming faded away behind him, he fished out the notepad he had gotten from Izzy and scribbled down the rune for light on it, before channeling mana into the rune to create a flashlight. "Never thought that this would actually have some use," he muttered to himself, holding up the piece of paper and shining the light right into the face of a giant worm.

"Eep," he squeaked, taking a step back and hearing a twig snap under his foot. The worm swiveled its head directly at Noah and roared. Noah just barely managed to jump backward, before he could get sideswiped by its giant tail.

Noah took another step backward only to find himself with his back to a cliff. "Well isn't this peachy," he groaned aloud, as the worm began to crawl towards him. He winced and held up his left hand, holding it steady with his right. "Let's hope this works," he said to himself, pointing his fingertips directly at the body of the worm.

" _Gandr!_ " he shouted.

Red magic circuits crisscrossed along the left side of his body, as energy began to coalesce into his index finger, forming a small dark red ball of energy in front of it. Noah could feel it gathering in energy until he couldn't hold it back anymore and fired it straight at the worm. It smashed through the bug's innards, piercing straight through before dissipating a few feet away, leaving a giant hold in the bug's body. A couple of stray sparks and electricity crackled around the hold, as the worm fell to the ground.

Noah let out a deep breath he had been holding in. "It… worked?" he said to himself, carefully inching towards the worm. "I can't… wait." He narrowed his eyes, when he noticed the wires and circuit boards inside the body of the worm. He gritted his teeth. "Great it was a robot this entire time! I was never in any danger!" He kicked the robot, hearing a metal clang from its hollow body. "Stupid Chris-!"

Suddenly, Noah's entire body erupted into goosebumps as a terrible feeling emerged in his stomach. Tentatively, almost afraid of what he would find, he looked above him to see an angel standing lightly on a branch, a thin spear of light in hands. This time Noah could see just under her hood to see that she had black hair and bright red eyes.

"Back away, human!" Berserker suddenly materialized in front of Noah, her face hidden behind bright orange flames, holding her bone sword in a defensive pose.

"What?" Noah said, surprised. "B-!"

"Don't even think about finishing that statement," Berserker growled. "Giving away my class would put us in a disadvantage with the enemy." She glared at the angel above, who just gave her an expressionless look.

"Wait," Noah choked out. "She's a Servant?"

"What a puny mind," Berserker snarked, effectively confirming Noah's suspicions.

The Servant seemingly decided that it would be best to finally move, as she took a step off the branch and floated down to the ground. In a swift motion, she spun herself around and swiped with her light spear. Berserker grunted and quickly brought up her sword to block the strike. However, the angel moved just as quickly performed a jab at Berserker's neck, which she narrowly dodged.

Berserker narrowed her eyes. "A Lancer," she said aloud, seeing the Servant's eyes narrow. "That's her class," she said to Noah. "Note it down, human."

Noah gave her a look. "Are you being sarcastic or completely serious?" he asked, taking a couple of steps away from the fight.

Berserker gritted her teeth but didn't bother to answer as she swung her sword as Lancer, who merely sidestepped it and struck with her own weapon, grazing Berserker's body, drawing blood. Berserker grabbed the spear of light, before she recoiled and let go, her hand burning. She summoned some fire in her hand and threw it at Lancer, who just let it hit her with little damage done.

"Tch." Berserker made a noise and rushed Lancer, trying to swing her sword again. Lancer easily blocked it, but Berserker brought her leg up and slammed it into Lancer's stomach sending her flying into a tree.

Lancer recovered quickly and threw her spear at Berserker, before summoning another one and charging straight at her. Berserker used her sword to slash away the thrown weapon, only for Lancer to plunge her spear into her foot. She winced, before roughly slamming her sword into the side of Lancer's body, sending her flying once again.

Noah was watching the fight with wide eyes. Each time one of the Servants would get a small advantage in the fight, the other would somehow manage to one-up them only a few blows later. Though, Noah could instinctively tell that Berserker was somehow on the losing side of this fight.

He swallowed as Lancer managed to pierce Berserker's shoulder with her weapon. So this was a Servant battle. Two extremely powerful forces going at each other. Noah suddenly realized how dangerous this entire situation was. Learning magic was _not_ worth risking his life.

Suddenly Lancer turned towards him.

Noah froze, as Lancer turned in mid-swing to fly towards him. "Human!" Berserker shouted, turning to chase the angel only to falter and fall to her knees." "Ngh!"

He closed his eyes, as Lancer approached, frozen in place and cursing Chris with all his might.

 _Clang!_

The pain never arrived. Noah tentatively opened his eyes to see that a young man was in front of him. Protecting him from Lancer, with a thin katana in one hand. He was wearing some ratty feudal era Japanese clothing and a brown scarf hid his mouth from view. His hair was pure black and tied into a short bun.

Lancer jumped back and regarded her new foe, before glancing back at Berserker. After a moment of hesitation she spread her light wings and flew into the canopy, quickly disappearing from view.

Silence followed, as the mysterious swordsman sheathed his weapon and turned to Berserker, lazily. Berserker tensed and held up her own weapon, but looked unsure of what to do. "Your another Servant," she accused.

The swordsman didn't answer, but Noah ended up distracted by the rustling of some nearby bushes. "Hey are you okay…?" DJ stumbled out of the greenery and froze when he noticed Noah staring at him.

"Yes Master," the swordsman replied casually.

DJ paled. In a quick motion, he turned on his heels and bolted, as the swordsman faded into gold dust.

It took Noah a moment a full minute to register what had just happened. "Hey wait a minute!" he shouted, even though he instinctively knew that DJ was already too far away for him to hear him. He fell to the ground and held his head. "DJ… he's a master?"

"Most likely," Berserker responded with a frown. "I do not know his servant's class, however. I would like to say Saber, but we already met Saber before…" She narrowed her eyes as she turned to Noah. "On other matter, human, do you mind not using all of your mana just to fight a bug. If you end up wasting it all on frivolous things then I won't have any power to fight."

Noah glared at her. "Well excuse me for trying to save my own life," he snarked, momentarily forgetting about DJ.

Berserker narrowed her eyes, but didn't reply instead opting to fade away into her spirit form leaving Noah back into complete darkness.

Noah sighed and was about to recast the light rune, only for Tyler to suddenly jump out of the bushes. "Noah!" the jock yelled, squinting his eyes. "Is that you?!"

Startled, Noah looked at him nervously. "Tyler?" he asked. "You didn't hear or see anything just now did you?"

Tyler gave him a weird look. "What?!" he replied. "I don't know what you're talking about but that doesn't matter! Alejandro wants us all back near the campsite before those worms attack us again!"

Noah blinked. "O…kay," he said slowly, unable to really decide on a sarcastic reply. His mind was still too addled by recent events to think too hard about comebacks.

Evidentially, even Tyler expected Noah to hit him with some more sarcasm. "Um…" he said awkwardly, before handing Noah a stick.

Noah took it, raising an eyebrow. "What's this for?"

Tyler grinned sheepishly. "Weapon?"

Noah just stared, before shaking his head and walking away. "You're lucky that Lindsay isn't into that whole brains thing."

Tyler looked appalled, as he rushed to follow Noah. "Hey! Lindsay likes me for other things!"

Xxx

"No, get off of me!" Heather flailed her arms wildly as the natives wrenched her mouth open, examining the small gap between her two teeth. They had grabbed her after the song that Team Amazon had been forced to sing and planted her on a small throne to do… something to her. One of them pulled out something shiny began to draw it closer to Heather's mouth. She started to panic some more, her eyes glancing at her teammates and back at the native. However, the rest of Team Amazon were helpless to save her.

"Man, she sure is screaming," Gwen noted, hysterically as her right eye twitched.

Heather felt a small pinch where her missing tooth used to be, as the native suddenly backed off. "That's right!" she snapped. "Back off-!" She gasped, as her hands covered her mouth. She could feel something new in there, replacing her missing teeth. A golden tooth.

"The gold tooth?" Gwen continued. "I mean crazy? Or what? Crazy, right? I mean it can't be me who thinks it crazy? Sooo crazy! Crazy! Craaaaaazy-!" Gwen paused suddenly, as her head lolled forward. She closed her eyes and began to snore.

Cody blinked. "Man, when that EpiPen wears off it knocks you out good."

Sierra scowled. "Her snoring it making me _crazy_!"

"I think you mean crazier," Courtney hissed, before glaring at Heather. "Heather…" she said slowly. "I know you're happy to have your face fixed, but do you think you could make them let. Us. Go!"

"Hmmm…." Heather tapped her chin, as the Zing-Zings bowed to her. "I could do that… but what if it makes them angry. Angry enough to sacrifice one of you! We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Cody eyed the spears carefully and cringed. "She's right about that," he pointed out.

"No, she isn't!" Courtney snapped, before groaning and looking up at the sky. "It's almost morning," she noted. "I hope to god that Chris is sending someone to save us…"

Xxx

Noah blinked the sleep out of his eyes. The sun was shining down and the fire at their campsite had gone out. He had been sleeping next to Tyler and Izzy, with Alejandro standing on guard nearby covered in bug bites. Noah felt a twinge of guilt in his haze since he hadn't bothered to inform anyone else on the fact that the worms had been nothing more than robots made by Chris.

"Daybreak!" he said loudly, snapping Noah out of any weariness he had. "No time for headcounts! We've got to get to Machu Picchu and find that treasure! Hurry!"

In a better state of mind, Noah probably would've asked why Alejandro was so insistent on going so quickly, but he was still thinking back to what he had witnessed last night as he followed his team down the trail. A Lancer had tried to attack him and Berserker and, for whatever reason, DJ was a Master and his Servant had saved Noah. Noah couldn't really wrap his head around that fact. DJ a Master? In something called the Holy Grail War?

For a second, Noah considered the possibility that his weird animal curse could be real, before dismissing it. Something as stupid as that…? Nah.

Still, it did out DJ as a mage. And the way he had acted last night when coming across Noah… well, Noah would just have to ask him about it the next time that they saw each other. Berserker wasn't giving him any information, despite how many times he tried last night after returning to the campsite. He was on his own when it came to gathering information.

If anything DJ might be able to help him get out of the stupid war before he got hurt.

Noah noticed that they had been traveling along the trail for quite a while and they had finally reached a stone staircase. "Do you think we're the first ones here?" he heard Izzy ask.

"Doubtful," he replied. "Hasn't Team Victory been in front of us this entire time?"

"I haven't even seen the other teams, man!" Tyler groaned.

Noah decided to keep his encounter with DJ a secret, as Alejandro just gave a glare. "That exactly why we've got to make it up, as fast as we can!" he told them. "I do not plan on staying in the economy again." He shuddered, before looking up. "I think we're at the summit!"

Noah let out a sigh of relief, but suddenly Chris appeared in front of them shaking his head. "Nuhuhuhuh," he said. "You can't start searching until your entire team is here."

Tyler looked behind him and gasped. "Owen!"

"You never said that," Alejandro accused. "You're making up these rules as we go!"

"And this surprises you because…?" Chris let the question hang there.

Alejandro sighed. "Fine. Allow me to search for our beloved teammate." He turned and began to run down the stairs.

"Um…" Noah raised a finger. "Do you need us to help?"

"No need." Alejandro waved a hand. "You three just relax and I'll be back in no time."

Noah frowned for a second before shrugged. "Fine by me." He took a seat on a log nearby with Izzy and Tyler.

"Hehe." Chris chuckled as he watched Alejandro race down the steps. "He'd better hurry. Team Victory are already searching!"

Noah's eyes widened. "They are?!" He looked around to see DJ investigating some of the more open ruins. He tried to catch his eye or gain his attention, but DJ looked like he was trying his best to look anywhere but in Noah's direction.

He raised an eyebrow. Now it was obvious. DJ was deliberately avoiding him.

"What's wrong, Noah?" Izzy asked, with a grin. "You have a new crush?"

"Just thinking," Noah grumbled, not bothering to answer Izzy's question.

Chris checked his watch. "Tick tock tick tock."

Just as he said that Alejandro finally came back with Owen in tow. The poor guy seemed exhausted after climbing all those stairs and running all the way over to them. Even Alejandro seemed a little wiped from his search. Nevertheless, he pointed towards the ruins. "Let's find that treasure!" he ordered his team, rushing towards the ruins with Izzy and Tyler following him.

Noah hung back with Owen. "What happened?" he asked a little curiously.

A flash of anger passed through Owen's face, causing Noah to look taken aback. "I had a _friend_ save me from those killer worms. That's all." He walked off, making Noah frown. Did he do something wrong?

He turned around for only a second, when Tyler suddenly shouted, "I found it!" He turned to see that Owen and Tyler were fighting over a small monument on the ground with a crystal on the top.

Chris walked over. "Hey, guys. Whatcha ya doing?" he asked.

"We got it!" Owen exclaimed. "The olden treasure!"

"Great!" Chris grinned and held up a finger. "Except we're looking for a 'golden' treasure."

"I found it!" Lindsay suddenly said, running up to Chris with DJ behind him.

"Like that!" Chris announced. "Finally victory for Team Victory!" Lindsay and DJ cheered while Team Chris sulked behind them.

"Did he say golden?" Owen asked as he pulled the pillar out of the ground and the crystal on the top began to glow.

The ruins began to rumble and the stone pillars and statues began to crack. Chris looked around wildly. "Run!" he screamed, as everyone ran away from the ruins.

Xxx

Heather rubbed her new golden tooth, gleefully the next morning. Not only was it lucky for her to have a full smile again but now she had a catalyst for her magecraft. It would be a little awkward for her to use it when it was stuck inside her mouth but it was an improvement to no magic.

She perked up when she heard some rustling coming from the nearby bushes and quickly signaled the Zing-Zings to defend her. So when Chef walked out of the bushes with a large cleaver, the two men screamed something and lunged at him with their spears. "Chef!" the other cheered, happy to finally be rescued.

"It's okay!" Heather shouted to the Zing-Zings. "If you want to get on their good side you should kneel before me. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a god to these people."

Chef rolled his eyes and sliced the rope, freeing the rest of Team Amazon and not even bothering to help Gwen as she fell to the ground, still asleep. "Those aren't Zing-Zings!" he snorted. "They're just the local Peruvian teenagers."

"But the outfits…" Cody exclaimed.

"The spears!" Sierra pointed.

One of the Zing-Zings removed his face mask to reveal an ordinary looking guy underneath. He walked over to Heather and showed her a sort of flyer for some sort of performance. Heather's mouth dropped. "You're actors?!" she cried. "In this year's Shakespeare and the Jungle production of Macbeth?!"

"We play the Porters!" he explained, before walking away with his buddy.

Heather could only stare at them dumbfounded, before gripping her mouth. "I let two-bit actors place a gold tooth in my mouth?!" She retched.

"Guess you aren't a god after all," Sierra snarked.

"And you lost the challenge," Chef explained. "You guys gotta vote someone off."

"Ow!" Cody suddenly gripped his wrist. "Oh no. A red ant bit me!" He fell to his knees.

"No!" Sierra yelped, looking terrified. "We-we don't have another EpiPen… I know! I'll suck the poison out of my mouth!" She placed her mouth over Cody's thumb.

"If only there was someone we could blame for all of this," Heather snorted, as Sierra tried to desperately suck the poison out of Cody's hand. She suddenly smiled, as she caught sight of Gwen sleeping on the ground. "Mornin' Gwen!"

Gwen sleepily blinked her eyes open and looked around. "Did we win?" she asked, only to wince when she caught sight of her entire team glaring at her.

Xxx

Noah was staring blankly at his food, just wondering what kind of grub that DJ and Lindsay would be getting in first class. "Are you going to eat that?" Owen asked him, having already licked his plate clean.

Noah sighed and pushed the plate away. "No," he admitted. "I don't have much of an appetite."

"Man, I can't believe we got second place again!" Tyler groaned, jabbing his fork into his meat.

"Look on the bright side," Izzy said, chewing on her food like a dog.

Tyler waited for a moment but Izzy didn't say anything else. "Aren't you going to tell me what it is?" he asked.

Izzy gave him a weird look. "What? I don't know! Figure it out yourself."

"Um…" The jock tapped his chin. "Lindsay's still in the game?" he suggested.

"Excellent," Noah replied smoothly, with a roll of his eyes. "That's using the old noggin. You're right. At the very least your girlfriend is in first class eating actual food while we're stuck-!"

"Oh, Tyler!" Lindsay suddenly ran into the mess hall. "DJ said I could invite you to first class!"

Tyler beamed and got up immediately. "Really! That's awesome!" He pumped a fist into the air. "Woo-hoo! Go looking at the bright side!"

Lindsay gave him a confused smile. "My mom said that you should wear sunglasses if you're doing that," she said, not so helpfully, as she followed Tyler into first class.

Noah gave the couple an incredulous look, before glancing at Alejandro to see what he would say, only to find him leaning back to overhear Team Amazon's conversation. He frowned. "Um… Earth to Alejandro," he said, snapping his fingers.

Alejandro blinked and turned his attention to Noah. "What is it?" he asked.

"Tyler just walked off with his girlfriend to first class," he explained. "Ringing any bells?"

"Oh." Alejandro didn't seem to care, as Team Amazon headed off to their elimination ceremony. "Give me a moment Noah." He slid out of his seat and raced to follow the others.

Noah frowned, but seeing as Owen was talking to Izzy and paying him no attention and Berserker was oddly silent, there was nothing stopping him from following Alejandro to the elimination ceremony.

Xxx

Once he got there, he found Alejandro talking to Heather. He frowned. Were they in an alliance? Before he probably would've cared about this revelation more, but now, with his life hanging in the balance, he had trouble really caring. At the very least, he could use it as some blackmail if he really wanted to.

"Let's take a look at who you all voted for!" Noah glanced at Chris, as an intern wheeled in a small TV. "Just for fun…" He clicked a button and the television began to play their confessionals.

 _Gwen appeared first. "I vote for Heather!" she said holding up her passport. "And Chris, there's ten dollars in it if you forget to give her a parachute."_

 _Next was Courtney. "Goodbye, Heather," she said stamping the passport. "Wow. Feels too good to be true."_

 _Heather was next. "I vote for Gwen," she said angrily._

 _Sierra appeared on the screen. "I vote for Heather," she said, before giggling. "I used to say that all the time in front of their mirror. But here I am, outside and finally saying it for real!"_

 _Cody was the final one to show up. "I vote for… Sierra." He held up her passport. "She's only gotten worse. I've got to send her home before something bad happens!"_

"There!" Chris said as the television shut itself off. "All done."

Cody looked at Sierra next to him, who was trying her best to hold back tears.

"Let's just get this over with!" Heather snapped.

"I guess it would be a good time to kick Heather off the plane…" Chris said with a nod, before grinning. "You know… if this had actually been an elimination round! But it's not!" He blew a party horn in celebration. "Surprise!"

Noah rolled his eyes as everyone else gasped. Leave it to Chris to pull a twist like that out of his ass. He glanced over at Alejandro to see some mild surprise flash across his face before it disappeared. Noah raised an eyebrow at this. Maybe he and Heather weren't in an alliance after all?

As Team Amazon dispersed, Noah hung back by Alejandro and, just as the last person left, he tapped his teammate on the shoulder. Alejandro jumped and whirled around. "Noah!" he hissed. "What are you doing here?!"

Noah frowned. "Wondering where you went?" he replied. "It's just the elimination ceremony. What's the big deal?"

Alejandro let out a nervous sigh. "You're right. You're right." He walked back towards economy class and yawned. "I'm ready to get some actual sleep."

Noah watched him go. "He's hiding something," he muttered.

" _Does it matter?_ " Berserker said in his mind, startling him. " _The boy in the forest is more important, no?_ "

Noah winced. " _He had a Servant,_ " he summarized. " _I've never talked to DJ before, so it's not exactly easy to approach him. Especially since we're on opposite teams._ "

" _Just challenge him to a fight,_ " Berserker offered. " _I'll kill that swordsman easily._ "

Noah shivered, before narrowing his eyes. He just couldn't do that. Kill another person " _No. I have a better idea._ "

* * *

 **Trivia**

Lancer

One of the seven main classes of Servants and part of the Three Knight Classes. Servants in this class tend to be very quick and specialize weapons such as the spear and lance. They are excellent in close combat and capitalize on the hit and run techniques to take advantage of their speed. Their only class trait is known as "Magic Resistance," which only increases resistance to magecraft, but Lancer class Servants are known to be reliable.

* * *

 **Current Known Master/Servants**

Noah – Berserker (True Name: ?)

DJ – ? (True Name: ?)

? – Saber (True Name: ?)

? – Lancer (True Name: ?)

* * *

 **Sorry for taking some time to update! Thanksgiving week and the week after ended up being busy for me, so I couldn't really finish this chapter fast enough. This chapter was also pretty packed in terms of content.**

 **I'm thinking of moving this to the crossover section, so I might do that after this story reaches a certain point when I feel it might be best. Or now. Tell me in the reviews. (EDIT(1/18/19): It has been moved.**

 **Short Author's note for today. Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: DJ's Curse

Review Replies:

 **That British Guy:** I might have to. I'm pretty sure this is breaking some rules on fanfiction and plus I might be able to get some feedback from people who know more about fate than I do. I might move it soon after this chapter goes up or after I hit a certain point very soon. Edit(1/18/19): I ended up moving it.

 **Felix Fiori** : Thank you for the kind words! Again I'm keeping the pairing(s) a secret, but I can say it won't be NoCo. It just wouldn't fit for what I have planned.

And thank you to everyone else who reviewed and everyone else who followed/favorited!

* * *

Noah was quiet for most of the plane ride to their next destination. After a while, Chris kicked Tyler out of first class, since he wasn't a part of Team Victory and the jock was now sulking in a corner. Owen and Tyler were snoring, Izzy was missing and Alejandro was staring daggers at Heather, who was glaring back.

Yep, just a normal day in Loser's class.

Noah just was trying to stay away from everyone and read his book, studying up on rune magic. Berserker had thankfully stayed quiet throughout most of their trip to their next destination, leaving Noah to ponder his situation fully. Which, admittedly, didn't amount to much. DJ was a master… and there was a Lancer class Servant trying to kill him. The latter seemed more pressing at first glance, but at the same time Noah couldn't help but wonder how DJ, who he had pegged as someone who didn't seem to enjoy violence, somehow became part of something called "The Holy Grail War."

Noah perked up when he heard the plane's intercom turn on. Everyone else, who had been sleeping, rubbed their eyes and turned to the ceiling. "We'll be approaching our destination soon. Get ready, contestants!" Chris's irritating voice said, as nearly everyone groaned.

Tyler sighed and placed his head on his hands. "I'm glad Lindsay's team won the challenge and all," he said to Owen. "But with her being in first class and me being back here _sucks_."

Owen nodded understandingly. "I get what you mean," he replied. "When I'm… uh… away from Izzy for a while… um… I get really…"

"Happy?" Noah drawled. "Because your girlfriend is a complete and total nutjob. And I'm not talking about a tiny peanut. That girl is a Brazil sized nutjob."

Owen's face fell. "She's not-!" he began to protest.

"Hey, where is Izzy by the way?" Tyler suddenly asked, glancing around the room.

Alejandro shrugged. "I saw her go to the cockpit to talk to Chef," he answered, calmly.

Everyone gasped.

Suddenly, the plane began to shake and the sound system began to emit a continuous warning beep. "What's happening?!" Sierra wailed.

"Izzy," Noah muttered, trying to quickly grab his seat belt to tie himself down.

"We're going down!" Tyler wailed.

The plane suddenly flipped onto its side and Noah was sent flying to the other side of loser class, narrowly missing grabbing the seat belt. He was flung, headfirst, into a nearby birdcage. He couldn't help but groan as the plane soon leveled out. Pain, so much pain. He could barely move. It hurt so much-!

" _Oh, brush it off, human. You're fine._ "

Noah sighed and he pulled himself out of the birdcage just in time for the intercom to come back on with Izzy's voice, trying imitate Chef's voice. "Hello, this is your captain speaking. If you look out your window, you'll get to see what happens when a plane does a somersault!"

"Gimme that!" Noah heard Chef's voice from the other end, trying to grab the microphone out of Izzy's hands. Noah and Alejandro exchanged a look. "Um.. y'all might want to hold onto something heavy."

Noah jumped onto the first thing that he thought of: Owen's back. Evidently, everyone else had the same idea because everyone else was hanging onto Owen just trying to survive the impending plane crash.

The only thing they could all do was scream as the plane hurtled to the ground.

Xxx

They had all gathered in a nearby archway after the plane had crashed into the river. Luckily no one was hurt, so Chris had gathered them all around him almost immediately with no time to even catch their breath. He flipped through some index cards as he scratched his head. "So I didn't get a chance to prep my introduction thanks to the unexpected water landing and all. I'm just going to give the highlights." He squinted at his notes as he flipped through each one. "Paris… city of love… yada yada… artwork… priceless artwork…"

Lindsay squealed. "Eeeeee! Paris!" She clasped her hands. "There's only one guy I want to be here with. The guy I've been dreaming about since we've been apart! Where's my Tyler?"

Tyler took a step forward so that he was next to Lindsay and coughed. "Hey Linds," he said nervously.

However, Lindsay merely raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's you?" she asked. "You looked a little differently in my head. Did you always wear a tracksuit?"

"Everything looks a little different in her head," Alejandro said to Noah out of the corner of his mouth. Noah couldn't help but smirk. That was true.

Lindsay quickly waved it off, however. "Oh, it doesn't matter. Because us being in Paris together means only one thing!"

Tyler nodded dreamily. "I know… I love-!"

"Shopping!" Lindsay squealed. "I can pick out new clothes for you! Eeee-!" Chris suddenly reached out and pinched Lindsay lips together so that she would shut up.

"There's no time for shopping," Chris said slowly, in an attempt to make Lindsay understand, before removing his hands from the girl. "The challenge is about to start! Everyone into the Loafve!"

Courtney blinked. "You mean Louvre," she corrected.

"Whatever," Chris snapped. "Go already!"

Xxx

Once everyone was inside, Chef rolled a large wooden crate in front of them. "Challenge time!" Chris said. "Each team will get their very own famous sculpture." He handed each team a picture. "Team Victory yours is The Thinker. Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Really Hot you're getting the Venus de Milo."

"Ah Venus," Alejandro said, gazing at the picture. "Such beauty."

"Calm down lover boy," Chris said. "Amazons! You ladies get the Statue of David! Here's how it works. It's up to you guys to find your statue hidden somewhere in the…uh… Lovedera…ryu…" He looked a little confused.

"Well that shouldn't be too hard," Courtney reasoned. "The statues are big. Plus I'm great at reading brochure maps!"

"About that," Chris said, almost happy to wash away any of Courtney's hopes. "Chef has broken the statues in pieces and hidden them. First team to find their pieces, race to the pyramid court and reassemble them win the challenge!"

"But the Thinker isn't located in the Louvre," Alejandro pointed out. "And the Statue of David isn't even in France."

"Well we're not using the actual statues," Chris pointed out. "Those are priceless. Chef made some fake ones. Right?"

Chef stayed very still for a few moments, before suddenly running away from everyone in a hurry. Noah watched him go and let out a sigh.

Nice job, Chef.

Chris seemed to take in stride. "I almost forgot the twist twist." He held up a small remote. "Here's your motivation." He pressed the button.

The wooden crate fell apart as three monsters were revealed to be inside. One of them, Noah recognized as the Sasquatchanakwa from Wawanakwa Island. Thankfully he had never encountered it… until now. The second was a bear with a large chainsaw. The third…

"Aw look DJ!" Lindsay cooed. "It's that baby seal you accidentally ran over in Yukon."

The seal suddenly let out a roar and DJ jumped in Lindsay's arms.

"I'd start running," Chris suggested.

Each team screamed and began to run, each one going down a different corridor. Each creature followed a different team and Noah and Owen found themselves being chased by the Sasquatchanakwa since they were easily the slowest of their team.

"I don't want to be yeti poop!" Owen wailed.

"Don't worry!" Noah quickly said, getting a sudden idea. "I've got your gigantic back, big boy! Watch this! Totally works on my dog!" He whirled around to face the sasquatch and, with a quick thought about how this was an actually terrible idea, held up a hand, pretending there was a ball in it as the Sasquatchanakwa screeched to a halt, its eyes fixed on Noah outstretched hand. "It's a ball," Noah said, waving his hand in front of the Sasquatchanakwa's face, who immediately fell onto all found and began to pant like a dog. "Who wants the ball? You do? Then… go get it!" Noah pretended to throw the ball forward and watched at it began to chase the nonexistent item.

"Wow." Owen blinked.

"Well played Noah!" Alejandro commented, giving him a nod as Noah let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't actually sure if that would work. "Now let's get to gathering those pieces! Everyone split up. Find as many pieces as you can and let's meet back here near…" He glanced to the painting closest to him. "American Gothic," he said, pointing to said painting. "Now Onwards!"

Xxx

Heather grabbed a marble torso from the ground and hefted it over her shoulder. "Come on," she snapped at her straggling teammates. "There's no way I'm going to let the boys beat us to the Pyramid Court. Let's hurry up and find the rest of these pieces." She began to walk forward, ignoring Sierra sobs from behind her. She also ignored Cody's scream of terror.

"Um… Heather…" Gwen squeaked from behind her.

Heather rolled her eyes and turned around. "What is it now…?" She stopped when noticed the chainsaw-wielding bear standing near Cody and Sierra. She dropped the torso on the ground, only to have Cody jump into her arms a second later.

They all screamed as the bear revved up its chainsaw… only for it to sputter and stop working. The bear gave it a confused look and tried to get it to work again.

At that moment, Heather glanced at Sierra to see that she was still sobbing. She glared at Cody. "Cody," she instructed. "You got her into this mess. Now it's your responsibility to get her out of it." She dropped him onto the ground.

"Fine…" Cody mumbled, halfheartedly, carefully walking towards Sierra so that he was right behind her. He patted her on the back. "Um… there, there Sierra. Everything will be all right?"

"I can't stand anymore crying!" Gwen snapped, holding her head. "We can do this challenge without you! Deal with Sierra!" She and Courtney walked away and Heather, quickly sending the two an irritated look, followed.

Cody sighed and looked up only to see that the bear was now only a few inches away from them. It growled. Cody yelped and began to shake Sierra wildly. "Okay, Sierra! Snap out of it! Snap out of it, please!" he cried desperately.

Sierra just continued to sob and, seeing this the bear began to sob too. Cody had no idea why but wasn't going to pass the chance up. He began to pull Sierra away and down another hallway, far from the crying bear.

Xxx

It had taken them all a while for them to find most of the pieces to their statue. They weren't hidden too well, at least in Noah's opinion. Most of them were hidden under benches or underneath other statues. They were all relatively easy to find.

Save for one.

Noah gazed at the head of Venus de Milo behind lines of red lasers blocking him from retrieving it. Tyler had found it and, after finding the rest of the pieces, Team Chris gathered themselves in front of the laser grid containing their final piece.

"So…" Alejandro blinked. "How do we get it?"

Tyler grinned and jabbed his thumb at himself. "Guess who was the captain for his gymnastics team at KinderGym!" he bragged, before taking a few steps back for a running start. "It's Tyler time!" He dashed forward, only to run into a nearby pillar and collapse onto the floor.

Alejandro looked unimpressed, as he turned to Noah. "Noah," he ordered. "You will have to move through the lasers. Owen's girth and my chiseled chest will not fit!"

Noah was about to refuse only to head the Sasquatchanakwa growl from somewhere nearby. "Fine," he relented. "Let's just get this thing done. I don't think my imaginary ball trick is going to work twice." He mimed throwing a ball again, only to watch Izzy run after it thinking it was real. He ignored her usual brand of crazy and instead turned to the laser grid. "Okay… I just move and-Ow!" His finger had accidentally grazed a laser and fried it.

Owen winced. "Ouch."

Noah rubbed his hand and glared at the camera crew that was watching them. "Seriously what the hell?!"

All of them exchanged a look. "Um… good luck?" the cameraman said.

Noah groaned, and carefully stuck his leg into a hole in the grid, before stepping onto a clear patch of floor. Next was his head, which had narrowly missed another laser and finally, his two arms and legs were through the hole. He took a deep breath and gave a thumbs up to the rest of his teammates.

Alejandro sighed. "We're doomed."

Xxx

Sierra had her fingers stuck into her ears, while Cody tried to desperately explain himself. He had managed to drag her a few hallways away from the killer bear, but now had the trying task of motivating Sierra to come out of her slump. However, every time he had tried to get a word in, she would sing, drowning out anything he could say.

Suddenly, Cody felt someone tap his shoulder and he jumped, quickly whirling around to see Chris standing, with a forced grin. "Hi, my name is Chris," he said, casually, making Cody wince. "I'm the host of an ultra famous reality tv show. Hey. Did you know that you're on the show? Like right now. And supposed to be doing a challenge?"

"Sierra's mad at me," Cody quickly explained.

"Aw…" Chris said mockingly. "I don't care."

"I've got to get her to stop crying," Cody said to him desperately, hoping Chris would have a solution, any solution.

"Still not caring," Chris said brightly, just as a small _ding_ was heard. "Hey! You know what that means! Time to sing! Or you're off my show!"

"No! Chris please!" Cody begged. "She won't-!"

Sierra looked up. "I'll sing," she said, before glancing at Cody. "For Chris," she finished.

Xxx

Noah carefully stuck his head into a hole of lasers, silently hoping that one of them wouldn't appear suddenly and go straight through his head. He stuck another leg in, moving closer to his prize, just as he heard a small _ding_ come from behind him. He turned his head to the camera crew behind him. "Seriously?" he asked, biting his tongue to keep from screaming. "Seriously?!"

The cameraman shrugged and patted his large camera. "Just start singing."

Noah could help but groan.

Xxx

Paris in the Springtime

 **Sierra** : _I love Paris in the springtime!_ _  
_ _Je t'aime Paris in the fall!_

Cody was following her, as she twirled around with an umbrella in between the paintings. "That's great, Sierra! Keep going!"

 **Sierra** : _It's the city of love in the summer!_

 _But now, it's just a bummer! 'Cause..._

 _Cody broke my heart and chewed it up and spit it out and then, stepped on it and threw it down a sewer and called it names and then laughed!_

Cody walked towards a painting of a boy that resembled him that Sierra had covered in blue paint. He winced.

 **Sierra:** _Oui, my friends! You must never trust a boy!_

 _Oui, my friends! They will treat you like a toy!_

 _Oui, my friends! They will-!_

 _Aww..._

 _Break your heart and chew it up and spit it out and step on it and throw it down a sewer and call it names, and then laugh!_

"Wait up, Sierra!" Cody ran through the hallway just trying to catch up to Sierra, as a hunk of marble suddenly slammed into his head and sent him crashing into the ground.

The scene changed over to Noah, who was still trying to get through the grid of laser, and Owen who was doing his best to encourage him.

 **Owen** : _Oui, my friend! You are going to make it through!_

 **Noah** : _Um, non, my friend. That thing just burned off my shoe._

Noah held up his foot to show him his burned shoe, only for a laser to go straight through his legs, narrowly missing his crotch.

Meanwhile, in another part of the museum, Chef was tap dancing to the music while the rest of Team Amazon watched in disturbed silence, just as Sierra and Cody came running through the hallway to continue their dance number.

 **Sierra** : _Oui, my friends! All I did was love him true!_

"Cody what are you doing?!" Heather snapped at him.

"I'm trying!" Cody quickly protested.

 **Sierra** : _Oui, my friends! Now, I'm stuck telling you..._

 _If you fall in love with a boy on TV, and then audition to get on his show, and then audition again, and finally get on his show, and be nice to him and do nothing but kiss-up, you will still-_

 _Oui, end up in Paris!_

 _Oui, feeling disparaisse!_

 _And the boy won't even take you outside!_

Heather wanted to rip her hair out. "All she wants is to go outside?! Do it, Cody!"

"Alright!" Cody said. "She didn't tell me." He grabbed Sierra's hand. "Let's go, Sierra." Sierra just puckered her lips and snatched her hand away from Cody's grip, before walking towards the door.

Xxx

Noah let out a sigh of relief as he dumped the marble head into Alejandro's hands. "I'm alive," he wheezed.

"Oh, come now." Alejandro rolled his eyes. "It can't have been that bad."

Noah opened his mouth to retort, only to pause when he noticed Lindsay nearby, using a tarp to drag her pieces down the hallway.

Tyler glanced over to where Noah was looking and noticed his girlfriend. "Linds, are you okay?" He looked around. "Where's DJ?"

"Um…" Lindsay looked slightly confused. "Egypt maybe?"

"You mean the Egyptian exhibit?" Noah asked.

Lindsay nodded. "Yeah, that!"

Noah opened his mouth to make a snarky comment, only for an idea to suddenly hit him. DJ was finally alone with presumably no camera crew around him. "Hey," he said to the rest of his team, as Lindsay just watched on, obliviously. "Remember when I navigated through a dangerous laser grid to retrieve a marble head for the _team_." He put emphasis on the final word.

Tyler scratched his head. "Yeah?" he replied. "That just happened a couple of minutes ago."

Noah nodded. "Yeah, that. Just don't forget it if we lose, okay." He rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of a good excuse. "I just need to go to um…. the… bath-bathroom!" He finished, cursing himself for coming up with something so lame.

Alejandro blinked. "Alright." He shrugged. "Just come back before we finish," he warned him, as the rest of Team Chris gathered their statue's pieces and began to make their way to the entrance, while Lindsay followed behind them, slowly.

Noah saluted lazily. "No problem fearless leader," he said, waiting until they were out of eyesight. Without an ounce of hesitation, he whirled around and began to run down the hallway, passing the bathroom. "The Egyptian exhibit should be around here…" he muttered to himself.

Xxx

Cody awkwardly tapped his fingers along the edge of the table, hoping that Sierra wouldn't notice how nervous he was. Even if she was still giving him the silent treatment. "Look," he said, trying to bring some life to their dinner. "Isn't this romantic?" He tried his best to ignore the fact that the Eiffel Tower behind them was just a very large painting and that they were just outside the Louvre. "Great view…" He gestured to the grape juice, bread, and chocolate in front of them. "All of your favorite foods. Well, my favorite but I saw you eating them off my plate once."

Sierra didn't say anything.

Cody picked up a bottle and uncorked it, only to send the cork flying into Sierra's face. He winced. "Oh, sorry!" he quickly apologized.

However, Sierra still didn't say a word.

Cody sighed. This was going terribly.

Xxx

Noah glanced into the Egypt exhibit and silently cheered, from behind a wall. DJ was still there. He was standing there trying to look oblivious as he inched closer to some of the mummified animals. No camera crew or other guests in sight and DJ still hadn't noticed him.

He was about to walk right in there and confront DJ when the same katana wielding Servant suddenly materialized in front of DJ. To DJ's credit, he only looked mildly annoyed. "What is it, Assassin?" he asked, as Noah's eyes widened at this new piece of information.

Seriously? DJ's Servant was an Assassin. Talk about fitting a square peg into a round hole.

Assassin only smirked and shrugged, halfheartedly. "There's someone hiding like a coward and spying on you." His grin lengthened. "Shall I cut off his head?" A chill ran down Noah's spine.

DJ recoiled. "What? No!"

Assassin clicked his tongue, not trying to hide his disappointment.

DJ looked around. "Whoever you are," he said, his voice shaky. "Come out. I promise Assassin won't hurt you."

Noah took a step forward into DJ's view and held up his hands.

DJ frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Um…" Noah quickly let his hands fall. "Nothing." He shook his head. "So you're a Master?" he asked.

DJ stiffened. "Yeah…" he replied carefully.

Noah's eyes drifted over to DJ's hands where they were a conspicuous lack of Command Seals. "But you don't have those tattoos," he noted.

DJ blinked. "Oh, uh…" He awkwardly rubbed his left hand. "I use makeup to hide it. I didn't want anyone else to ask about them…"

Noah wanted to slap himself. Why didn't he think of that?

To Assassin's credit, he was doing his best to completely ignore the conversation, only opting to scratch his right shoulder with the hilt of his katana. He looked absolutely bored and Noah could tell he was just waiting for his Master to give the order to fight. In the back of Noah's mind, he could feel Berserker doing the same through their link.

Suddenly, Assassin's head snapped to the left. "Master…" he warned, slowly putting his sword in front of him and tensing up. DJ, and by extension Noah, followed Assassin's gaze over to a figure standing there patiently as if waiting for them to notice her.

DJ gulped as he laid his eyes on Lancer. "Oh god."

Xxx

"Um listen…" Cody's fingers nervously drummed on the wood of the table. "Just so you know, I'm really sorry about voting for in the last elimination ceremony."

Sierra poked at the piece of bread on her plate and opted to just ignore Cody.

"It's just that it really not safe here right now," Cody blabbed, just trying to get Sierra back onto his side. "Chris's plane already looks like it's about to fall apart in another two challenges. Izzy nearly _killed_ us all only an hour ago." Again, he drummed his fingers nervously. "You're not ready for this. Your personality already deviates past its normal parameters and-"

Sierra just gave him a confused look.

Cody sighed unhappily. "Oh right. I forgot again-!" His head suddenly snapped to the side so that he was staring at a wall, his expression tense.

This only confused Sierra more. "Cody?" she asked uncertainly, momentarily forgetting her anger with him. "Are you alright?"

He slowly turned his gaze back onto Sierra. "Sorry," he said carefully, his eyes darting around his surroundings. "I just thought I saw something strange."

"Does it have something to do with the severed foot underneath the table?" Sierra asked suddenly.

"Severed foot?" Cody quickly looked underneath the table, only to sigh in relief. It wasn't an actually severed foot rather just a marble foot hiding out there. A sudden thought occurred to him. "Um, Sierra," he said carefully. "Do you remember how many feet for our statue Gwen and the others were carrying before we left them?"

"Um…" Sierra tapped her chin. "…One?"

Uh oh.

Cody grabbed the foot and hefted it under his arm. "We'd better get back to our team," he said urgently. "Before we lose this challenge again." He rushed back into the Louvre, while Sierra followed a little stiffly, still looking unhappy.

Xxx

Well, this was it, Noah realized. He was going to lose his life to some teenage girl who was apparently some sort of legendary hero from the past.

Berserker materialized in front of him, her red fire hiding most of her face. "Back away, humans," she ordered, pointed her sword at the Servant, while placing one of her bare feet against her knee, so that she was standing on one leg. A strange stance for sure, but Noah wasn't about to complain as he and DJ retreated behind a nearby sarcophagus.

Lancer regarded the two Servants in front of her before two wings of light appeared behind her. In a quick motion, she jumped and flew over the two, landing right in front of the sarcophagus. Assassin reacted quickly, turned around and trying to plunge his katana into her back. Lancer produced a spear of light to block it.

Berserker came from the right to swing her sword, but it was blocked by another spear of light created by Lancer. However, Berserker wasn't done, as she raised her leg and plunged it into Lancer's belly, claw first, kicking her into a nearby wall with a loud _bang_.

Assassin blinked and glanced at Berserker, regarding her in a different light. Lancer picked herself off the ground and clutched her side, which was covered in blood from where Berserker's foot had punctured her, her face just as expressionless as ever.

Berserker smirked and lifted her leg to _lick_ the blood off it, before motioning for Lancer to attack her again.

Noah blanched at the sight of the blood, but his reaction was nothing compared to DJ's, who was visibly shaking, clutching a small mummified dog as if it were a lifeline. "Strength B," he whispered to himself, but not softly enough for Noah not to hear. "Endurance B. Agility B. Mana A+?! We're doomed!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Noah whispered furiously.

"Can't you see her stats?!" DJ wailed. "She's too powerful for either of her Servants to take care of!"

"No, but you mind sliding her baseball card, later. K thanks," Noah drawled. It was nice for him to see that he still had his sarcasm despite the life or death scenario. He glanced back at the fight to see how it was going.

Both Berserker and Assassin had teamed up to fight Lancer but, while they had started off strong thanks to Berserker, both of them seemed to be in a stalemate with her. Berserker and Assassin weren't untouched, either. Each had a couple of puncture wounds along there bodies from Lancer's own weapon, while Lancer was relatively untouched. Every time Assassin or Berserker would swing either of their weapons, Lancer would easily create another one of those light spears and block it. Assassin would quickly retreat when that, looking aggravated, while Berserker would try something else. She attempted to claw Lancer's face when Lancer parried another strike, but when that didn't work she just headbutted her, sending Lancer reeling.

Lancer quickly recovered and locked eyes with Noah who was staring at her from behind his cover, before throwing her spear directly at him.

Noah squeaked, but Assassin suddenly appeared in front of him and swung his katana, slashing the thrown weapon and it disappeared into nothing. "Oh man," he mumbled, understanding what was going on. Lancer wasn't actively trying to fight Berserker or Assassin, instead, she was trying to get past them, so that she could get either he or DJ. If the Master disappeared then the mana that was used to sustain a Servant would disappear and likewise, the Servant would disappear too.

"Hey, DJ," Noah said, turning the shaking giant. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we should have an advantage right. I mean," he added. "If we're working together."

DJ winced and peeked out from the cover. "I… don't know," he admitted. "This might just be a bad match-up. Assassin has no way to utilize his Noble Phantasm and your Servant…" he hesitated. "She seems to be holding back."

Noah blinked and glanced back at the fight, just in time to see Berserker bite down on Lancer's arm. Lancer showed momentary surprise, before kicking Berserker back away from her. She clutched her arm and glared at Berserker, who just grinned.

"Holding back?" Noah asked.

DJ winced. "She's not using her Noble Phantasm," he explained. He looked around. "Is it because this area is too small to use it in?" he asked Noah.

Noah blinked. "I… What's a Noble Phantasm?"

DJ gaped. "Um…" he spluttered. "Well, it's kinda hard to explain… especially-Ah!" A sudden spear of light was thrown right of his head, narrowly missing him.

Noah winced. "We should probably get out of here," he said, glancing back at the fight and swallowing. "She's clearly trying to kill us," he admitted a little nervously. "We should get-!" He turned back to DJ, only to find him missing. "DJ?" He looked around to see him hopping on a nearby cart.

"Sorry, Noah!" DJ yelled. "I've gotta get this curse off of me! Try not to die!" He raced off with the mummified dog in his hands.

Noah watched him go with a bewildered look, before glancing back at Lancer. She didn't seem to care that DJ was escaping, instead of meeting Noah's gaze. Meanwhile, Assassin suddenly paused in his attack and glanced at his fleeing Master. He smirked and sheathed his weapon, fading away into gold dust. "Good luck, Berserker."

Berserker just growled and tried to stab Lancer again, but without Assassin, she was woefully inadequate to deal with Lancer.

Noah figured that out too and decided to make his escape. There was another golf cart nearby that he could use to escape, and started to crawl over to it, ducking behind cover, so he wouldn't get seen. Just as he reached the cart, he glanced back at Berserker, only to pause when he noticed something on the sarcophagus. It was a sculpted piece of marble in the shape of someone's hair.

His mind began to race, thinking back to the head he had gotten from the laser grid. Now that he _really_ thought about it, the head didn't have any hair on it. Meaning that his team was still missing a piece of the Venus de Milo.

Noah groaned. "What the f-!"

Xxx

"Fudge!" Owen exclaimed brightly.

Tyler gave Owen a strange look. "What?"

"The acrylic," Owen explained, ripping a painting off of its frame and shoving it into his mouth. "It tastes like fudge." He chuckled.

"That great, Owen," Alejandro said, as he struggled to lift the marble head onto the body of the statue they were building. After a short distraction, where Team Amazon and their team's pieces ended up getting mixed up, they were finally on track to finish the statue. Both Team Amazon and Team Chris were the closest to finishing while Lindsay was only halfway done. But much to Alejandro's annoyance, Owen and Tyler had gotten distracted and Izzy had stopped bothering to even help out. "But do you mind helping me?" he hissed to the two talking, while he tried to keep the marble head in his hands.

"Oh. No problem, Al!" Owen walked over, missing Alejandro's grimace, and help him carry the head over to their pedestal.

"Tyler," Alejandro ordered. "Climb onto Owen's shoulders, grab the head from me, and place it where it needs to go." He glared at the jock. "Got that?"

"No problem!" Tyler climbed onto Owen's back and grabbed the head out of Alejandro's shoulders. "Right here?" he asked, as he placed the head on the top of the statue.

"Perfect!" Alejandro said enthusiastically, grinning. Finally, something was going right! He took a step back away from the statue as Tyler hopped off of Owen's shoulders to admire their hard work. His grin quickly fell, however. He noticed that there was something missing from the top of the statue. Scientifically the Venus de Milo's hair.

Chris walked over and chuckled. "Looks like you're missing something there, Team Me."

Alejandro scowled. "It's fine," he said, trying to contain his anger. "We just need to find the last piece." He turned. "Owen, can you-?"

"Whoa there buddy," Chris interrupted. "You're not going anywhere."

Alejandro gritted his teeth. "Why not?"

"You still have a teammate missing," Chris said smugly. "You still have someone out there to gather the last piece."

"Again, you're just making up these rules," Alejandro complained. "Besides Noah has no idea that we're even missing a piece."

Chris gestured to a nearby crew member, who just gave him a blank look. "I'll have one of the crew tell him about it. Happy?"

"Not much, no." Alejandro scowled.

"Arghhh!" Alejandro glanced over at Team Amazon to see Heather raging and stamping her feet. "We're missing a foot!" she snapped at Gwen and Courtney. "How did we manage that?"

Gwen blinked. "I-I must have miscounted." She frowned and glanced at their statue, where the Statue of David was currently missing a foot. "I don't know…"

Courtney placed a hand on Gwen's shoulder protectively, as she glared at Heather. "She made a mistake, Heather," she scolded, making Gwen give her a look of surprise. "It's not like either of us noticed that we were missing a piece before coming here."

Heather's frown just grew as she glared at Gwen. "If we lose this thing, then it should be your head on the chopping block this time! Not mine!" With a huff, she turned her back on Gwen.

Lindsay perked up from where she was working and nearly cheered aloud when she overheard what was happening with the other teams. Somehow she had managed to gather all the pieces of her statue without missing one, and all she would have to do is place the head to win the challenge. "DJ, we're totally going to win!" she cheered, before remembering that DJ was nowhere around her. "O-or I guess I'll win." She held up the Thinker's head triumphantly ready to place it down and finally win the challenge. "Yay me!"

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Lindsay glanced up to see DJ speeding towards her in a cart, with the bear, seal, and Sasquatchanakwa all wailing at him from different sides. She screamed and leaped to the right, as the cart barreled right into her nearly complete statue, completely destroying it and sending dust everywhere.

Once the dust cleared, DJ was underneath a pile of rubble unable to move. He looked up to the mummified dog he had taken, precariously on the edge of the tipped over the cart. "Ahhhhhh!" he screamed, as the dog tipped slowly to the right and fell to the ground.

Izzy, in a brazen move, leaped forward and stretched out her arms, snugly catching the dog into her palms and saving it from destruction. "It didn't break!" DJ exclaimed happily.

Izzy jumped to her feet and began to dance. "Woo! Go, Izzy! Go, Izzy! Touchdown!" She slammed the mummified dog into the ground, shattering it into pieces.

"NOOOOOO!" DJ wailed.

Alejandro frowned. Well, at least he still had a chance. Noah just better make it back here soon with the final piece, or someone was getting kicked out tonight.

Xxx

"Congratulations, Noah!" Noah mimed Chris as he crawled back to the cart after grabbing the hairpiece for their statue. "You get to fight in a death game with overpowered heroes from the past who are all crazy! Doesn't that sound like fun?!" Frustrated Noah, kicked a nearby wall. "Dammit!" he furiously whispered, as to not give away his position.

He peeked out over his cover while cradling the marble piece in his arms, noticing that Lancer had his back turned to him. Well, no better time than the present. It was his best chance of survival, after all.

Noah jumped to his feet and raced to the cart, hopping into the driver's seat. He quickly flicked open the glove compartment, thanking his lucky stars that the staff had been stupid enough to leave it there. He turned the engine on and raced off, not even looking back at Lancer or Berserker, his mind only on escape.

He turned the corner, praying to not run into any staff, only to find the hallway completely empty. Again, he thanked his luck as he sped off towards the pyramid court.

He suddenly felt a thump behind him and looked back to see Berserker standing on the back of the cart, one hand gripping the seats for balance and other holding onto a ball of flame. She glanced back him, looking irritated. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Escaping!" Noah shouted back. "What does it look like?"

Berserker gestured behind him and Noah spared a moment to glance back, only to see Lancer flying towards them, gaining ground on them by the second. "What your plan, human?" she asked snarkily.

"I thought they would disappear if we went out in the open!" Noah exclaimed as he turned back around to focus on his route. "We're in the middle of a museum, there's got to be some sort of employees watching the place or something!"

Berserker tossed the fire at Lancer, who nimbly dodged it, though it did slow the Servant down a bit. Well, only a bit. "Hmmm…" Berserker tilted her head. "That's not a bad plan." She smirked. "Too bad it didn't work. No one in sight."

Noah scowled, as he pressed the pedal in order to go faster, but the cart already at its limit in speed. "If we can make it to the pyramid court," he explained. "Then everyone should be around there."

Berserker paused as she conjured some more flames into her hand. "Do whatever you want, human," she snorted, firing some more flames at Lancer, who, again, just flew to the right to dodge them. She summoned two more spears and flung them directly in front of her towards them. Berserker swung her sword to cut through one, while the other passed Noah's head to embed itself into a wall in front of him.

Noah yelped and turned the kart to the right. "Just a few more turns," he muttered to himself, sweating, as he took another turn to the left.

"Activating runes." Noah, with wide eyes, turned to his right to see Lancer right alongside him with runic symbols floating around her. He quickly swerved to the right, as Berserker jumped into the passenger seat and slammed a fiery fist into Lancer's abdomen. Lancer chocked and seemed to falter before suddenly flipped around and trusting her spear into Berserker's shoulder.

Berserker roared and yanked the spear out of her shoulder, before punching Lancer in the face. Lancer was thrown back behind the cart and faded away into gold dust.

Noah glanced back. "Did we beat her?" he asked.

Berserker scowled. "No," she said, as she too started to fade away. "Your plan just worked." She vanished back into her Spirit Form.

Noah looked back to see that he was nearing the pyramid court. He slammed his foot on the brakes and the kart skidded to a halt, just before he slammed into his statue. Luckily he hadn't crashed right into it and lost the entire challenge for them.

He hopped out and ran towards his team, the final piece under his arm. Alejandro perked up when he noticed Noah. "Noah, wha-?" he started to ask.

"No time," Noah snapped. "Owen lift me to the top!"

Owen blinked. "Uh… sure thing!" He quickly lifted Noah onto his shoulders.

At the same time, Cody and Sierra ran into the pyramid court, carrying the foot of their own statue. "We found this!" Cody said, holding up the foot, having been told about the situation from the crew. "Where does this go?"

"Where do you think it goes?!" Heather snapped.

Cody winced. "Sorry!" He knelt down next to the Statue of David and placed the marble foot in its position on the statue. At the same time, Noah placed the hairpiece onto the head of the Venus de Milo.

 _Click! Click!_

"Finished!" Both teams shouted at the same time.

Chris looked between them. "Well looks like we got the winners!" he enthusiastically announced. "Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Really Hot and Team Amazon are tied for the win!"

"What?!" Heather cried. "A tie. You can't be serious!"

"Are we going to do some sort of tiebreaker then?" Alejandro asked.

"Nah!" Chris waved his hand. "I don't have an extra challenge for that. You both can stay in first class for this flight."

Cody sighed. "Well, at least we're not getting voted off, right Sierra?" He turned to look at the girl, only for her to sniffle and start crying again.

"I thought you were fixing her?" Heather pointed out.

"Look!" Cody said a little angrily. "I don't know what she wants."

Sierra just sobbed harder, wailing as tears flowed down her face.

"Enough! Sierra put a sock in it!" Cody snapped, making Sierra snap her mouth shut. Cody sighed and folded his arms. "Okay. You know what? Today is terrible. I hate today! Wanna know why? Because you're not acting like yourself _again_. Invading my personal space, touching my things and smelling my hair." He scratched his head. "Listen I've gotten used to the new you, but what I don't like is you crying all the time. Let's just… go back to how it was before. I know it's like saying that I want a slap to the face, but I'd rather that than a kick to my chestnuts-Ah!"

Sierra suddenly embraced him. "Oh, Cody! You had me at sock!"

Noah climbed off of Owen and looked around, before breathing a sigh of relief. " _Berserker?_ " he asked, through his mind. " _Is she going to come to kill us?_ "

" _No, human_." Berserker's reply was snappy. " _You're safe for now._ "

Noah nodded, but still remained tense throughout the challenge that Chris had cooked up for deciding who would go home in Team Victory. He kept looking around, half expecting Lancer to jump out of the shadows and skewer him like a kebab. The only time he let down his guard was when Tyler walked out onto the podium wearing the most ridiculous outfit. It was hard for him to hold in his laughter.

Somehow, DJ was the one who won the fashion contest and Lindsay was going home. He didn't bother to talk to anyone else and instead collapsed into the first empty seat he could find in first class, ignoring Heather and Alejandro arguing and ignoring Owen's and Izzy's love talk.

He was in way over his head. Lancer was clearly trying to kill him and if it hadn't been for his quick thinking, he probably would've been killed.

Noah wanted out.

He peeled off the bandages that were hiding his Command Seals. He still had three. But Chef's warning still rang in his mind and he didn't doubt it after seeing Berserker fight and her general attitude.

Noah's mind began to race. He was curious to see the Holy Grail, if it even was real, but not if he had to risk his life. He didn't trust Berserker to be okay with that, so…

He blinked. DJ. He also had a Servant, which also meant he had to be a magus. If there was anyone else other than Chris, who Noah knew wouldn't want him to leave the Holy Grail War, then it was DJ who could get him out so that he could just focus on the competition for a million dollars. To that end… the best thing would be for an alliance with DJ.

He took a deep breath. "Okay Noah," he whispered to himself, retying the bandages around his Command Seals. "You just need to convince DJ to join you in an alliance." He smiled shakily to himself. "How hard can it be?"

* * *

 **Trivia**

Assassin

One of the seven main classes of Servants and part of the Four Calvary Classes. Assassin class Servants excel at covert operations, stealth, and silence and are often known for their stealth kills in their legends. However, this class is known as one of the weaker classes in the Holy Grail War, since they often rely on unfair advantages to win a battle with another Servant or else they will completely fail at combat with said Servant. Because of this, they will instead target Masters instead of Servants. The Assassin class has a skill known as "Presence Concealment," which helps them stay undetected.

* * *

Current **Known Master/Servants**

Noah - Berserker (True Name: ?)

DJ - Assassin (True Name: ?)

? - Saber (True Name: ?)

? - Lancer (True Name: ?)

* * *

 **I have a feeling this may be a controversial chapter. For the past two challenges, I** **'ve done my best to have the challenge pretty much play out the same way it did in canon. However, with this one, a lot was changed. Mainly Team Chris and Team Amazon getting a tie, instead of Team Amazon winning. This is mostly because I didn't want Noah and DJ together in the same place after what happened this chapter.**

 **But I digress. You'll see next chapter.**

 **There was a lot of things to do in the chapter. Berserker and Assassin vs. Lancer, Team Chris and Team Amazon's tie, the challenge and Sierra's and Cody's "love" troubles, lol (obviously there's a lot more going there that has nothing to do with love).**

 **How was the fight scenes? Honestly, I'm not sure how good they are, but given that this is a "war," I'll have to get good at them eventually! Any tips on that front would be great!**

 **Also, tell me how I did on the song in this chapter. I know previous chapters I completely ignored them, but since Noah had a part to sing in this one, I very well couldn't really ignore it.**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated!**

 **See you next chapter(hopefully before KH3)!**

 **-Heroi Oscura**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Alliance

Xxx

 _Berserker chewed on a strip of meat, sitting cross-legged on a small boulder as she gazed down the mountain to the numerous other monsters milling about the mountainside, either eating or sleeping. She looked tense despite the fact that nothing was really happening._

 _The black haired oni from before was lounging on a small pile of pillows, sipping some sake out of her favorite flask. She glanced at Berserker her face red. "What are you doing?" she drunkenly asked with a lazy smile._

 _Berserker didn't answer but instead tightened her grip around her sword._

 _The oni followed Berserker's gaze and took another sip of sake. "It seems like everything is going-!"_

 _Berserker suddenly jumped up. "You!" she spat, angrily. A nearby oni froze, in its arms a couple of misshapen wooden logs. She marched forward and slapped the wood out of his hands. "You were supposed to bring that to the other side!"_

 _The oni cowered and quickly nodded, scooping up the materials, before scampering away. The black-haired oni watched it go with a dull look. She glanced behind her, to see a half-finished ornate palace still being built. She giggled. "Ah… it will be so majestic…" she said, lying flat on her back._

 _Berserker still hadn't calmed down, the grip on her sword only tightening. "It will be perfect for you," she declared._

" _Yes!" She raised her drink as if to toast the idea before looking straight at Noah with an eerie smirk. "For we are sworn siblings brought up together."_

Xxx

Noah's eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly, as he woke up from his dream. He was sitting beside Courtney, with Gwen sitting across from them and the two of them were looking up at the ceiling where loud thumps could be heard. "What is she doing?" Gwen asked, seeing Heather's leg accidentally kick open a panel on the ceiling.

Noah shrugged, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. It hit him a second later that Gwen probably wasn't addressing him.

"Beats me," Courtney replied, looking like she didn't care enough.

"Maybe's she turned into Izzy and is looking for elves!" Gwen offered with a snort, as Courtney laughed.

"EW! GROSS!" Heather suddenly stuck her head back out, holding a purple toothbrush. "What is this doing inside here?!"

Sierra gasped and ran over, grabbing the brush out of Heather's hands. "I've been looking for Cody's new toothbrush, everywhere!" She stuck it into her mouth and began to clean her teeth with it.

"Oh, come on, Heather!" Cody indignantly said. "That was my last toothbrush!" He scowled and sat back in his seat.

"Heather," Alejandro said, glancing up at her. "If you don't mind me asking, what _are_ you planning on doing?"

Heather narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Well, wouldn't you want to know?"

"She's trying to get to economy class to ask DJ for an alliance," Noah explained, dryly.

"Hey, how did you-?!"

Noah rolled his eyes at Heather. "You're pretty loud when you plot and there's not a lot of room in First Class in the first place. Overhearing things isn't hard." He smirked. "Might want to do your plotting in the confessional next time."

Heather scowled and disappeared back into the vents.

"You'd better be careful," Noah drawled. "I saw Izzy store some gummy worms in the vents last night."

"What are you-AHHHHHH!" A panel collapsed a few feet away and Heather landed on the floor with a thump, her hair covered in multicolored gummy worms.

Noah smirked. "Told you so."

Alejandro offered his hand, but Heather simply slapped it away and got up herself, while dusting herself off. Alejandro frowned. "She is right about one thing," he said to everyone else. "DJ is all alone in economy class. We should probably pay him a visit."

"That was my idea!" Heather snapped.

"But I thought you wanted an alliance," Gwen pointed out, with a raised brow.

"Same difference!" Heather growled and stomped over to the hallway towards economy class.

Alejandro glanced at the others. "Would anyone else like to come?" he asked, amicably. "DJ could use the company from other people other than Heather and I."

"Eh." Gwen waved her hand and leaned back in her chair. "No thanks."

"Agreed." Courtney nodded, doing the same.

Noah stood up at the same time as Owen. Noah gave him a small look of surprise before turned back to Alejandro. "I guess we're going?" he said, while Owen nodded silently.

Izzy wasn't around, but Tyler stood up, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah," he scowled. "I have some things to say to him." He stomped out of First Class, with Alejandro's eyes followed him looking concerned.

"Um?" Noah raised an eyebrow, but, truthfully, he didn't really care about whatever Tyler was talking about. Instead, his interest was trying to confront DJ about the fact that he had a servant and try to ask him for help. He was the only other Master that Noah knew, so, by extension, he was also the only person Noah could ask for help. "Shall we go?"

Alejandro smirked. "Yes, let's shall." He left First Class, with Owen following.

Noah gave his friend's retreating back with a little bit of confusion. Owen hadn't said a word to him ever since they had left Paris, which hurt Noah a little. Though, he had a feeling it was somewhat his fault. With his mind preoccupied with the Holy Grail War and teaching himself magic, Noah didn't really bother talking with anyone else on the plane, unless he was directly confronted, or something piqued his interest. Of course, that usually meant that he ignored Owen often since most of what came out of Owen's mouth was worthless in the long run.

Still, he was someone that Noah considered a friend. He figured after he managed rope DJ into helping him and Lancer stopped attacking them, he would finally be able to take a breather. Hanging out with Owen, if he and Owen were still around by then, might be a nice break from all the chaos in Noah's life at the moment.

He walked through the entrance that led to economy class, to find that Owen, Alejandro, and Heather were already there, talking to DJ. As he and Tyler entered, DJ turned to them and stiffened, a momentary flash of fear going through his face, before it settled back into a grim look. DJ turned back to Heather. "I told you, Heather," the boy insisted, firmly. "I want to be eliminated. I'm not harming any more animals."

"B-but DJ," Heather spluttered, shocked that DJ was willing to quit just like that.

Owen watched the exchange with a blank look when Noah walked up next to him. "What do you even say to someone when you want an alliance?" the boy asked Noah, clearly expecting him to have the reason.

Noah blinked. "I guess…" he presumed. "It would be just like asking a girl out. Only it's a guy."

Owen beamed. "Oh!" He turned to DJ. "Hey DJ!" he said, catching the attention of everyone. "Would you like to go out for hot dogs with my buddy, Noah? He says your legs are niiice!" Owen whistled.

Everyone gave Noah a weird look and he just rubbed his temples. "Yes," he said, dryly. "Because that's exactly what I told him to say."

"One cannot just blunder their way into an alliance, my friends," Alejandro said, smirking at Heather. Heather just growled.

"Why did you have to win, huh?" Tyler snapped angrily. "If you had just lost then Lindsay would still be here!"

Alejandro sighed. "Anger isn't a better alternative."

"I'm sorry, alright!" DJ snapped back. "I didn't want to win! After today's challenge, you won't ever see me again!"

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to leave?" he asked, thinking it had something to do with the Holy Grail War.

DJ shivered. "I just don't want to see any more animals hurt by my curse."

Owen's eyes widened. "You're cursed?!" he yelped, quickly hiding behind Alejandro.

Alejandro rolled his eyes. "Come now," he said. "Curses aren't real."

"Says you," DJ muttered. "I know what I'm talking about."

Suddenly, a vent cover on the ceiling slammed open, startling everyone present, and Izzy jumped out, landing cleanly on her feet. "Hey guys!" she cheerfully greeted with a wave of her hand, as if she hadn't nearly given them all heart attacks.

Alejandro was the first to recover. "Izzy," he said. "Where exactly have you been?"

Izzy waved her hand, carelessly. "Oh, you know. Sleeping, eating, mingling, _spying_ on my enemies…"

Owen blinked. "Wait what was that last one?"

"Oh yeah!" Izzy said brightly as if just remembering something. "We're about to land soon. At least that's what Chef said."

Noah glanced out a nearby window to see that the plane was slowly gliding down, though nothing but the water was below them. He raised an eyebrow. "She's right-!" Suddenly the plane jerked sharply back up, causing everyone standing to fall to the ground.

"Owww…." Owen moaned, cradling his bottom.

"Never mind-!" Noah started to say, before the plane jumped again, making everyone else fall to the ground again.

"What is he doing?" Alejandro cried, just before the plane jerked upwards again making him faceplant the floor.

"Should've worn a seatbelt," DJ scolded, folding his arms, unaffected by the plane's rough landing.

Soon enough the plane slowly descended onto the water, managing to float on its surface like a giant raft. Noah climbed to his feet and extended his arms to keep his balance. "Well that was a nice landing," he commented sarcastically.

Alejandro cast a withering look directed at Noah, but before he could say anything, Chris's voice suddenly came over the intercom. "Attention all Total Drama passengers," he said, sounding like he was holding back some laughter. "In accordance with emergency landing procedures, you will now be shown the exit!"

Chef suddenly appeared in economy class brandishing a large steak knife and pushing the remaining members of Team Amazon in with everyone else. "Alright," the man shouted, kicking open a nearby door. "Everybody out."

"You can't be serious!" Courtney snapped.

Chef simply rolled his eyes and grabbed Courtney's wrist. "Hey!" she cried, just before she was tossed out.

He turned to glare at everyone else. "Anyone else have a problem?" he growled.

Everyone nodded.

A few seconds later, everyone was pushed out the door forcefully and landed in the cold water below. Noah, luckily, managed to land intact and surface relatively quickly, just in time to see Chef throw Heather out into the water, where she was carrying a cushion from one of the seats in First Class.

"AHHHH!" DJ screamed, flailing his arms wildly. "I'm drowning."

"DJ catch!" Heather called, tossing him the cushion she had grabbed. DJ managed to catch it and use it as a makeshift life preserver. Heather quickly swam over to him and smiled, not that Alejandro didn't notice. "So how about that alliance?" she asked.

Alejandro tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around. "You're asking him for an alliance after saving him?" he asked.

Heather smirked. "You're just jealous that you didn't think of it first."

"Actually," Alejandro said smoothly. "I would've asked him before throwing him the cushion." He swam away, chuckling to himself, while Heather seethed behind him.

Noah cringed when he suddenly heard the low bellow of a ship horn coming from nearby and turned around to see Chris driving a small green fisherman's boat towards them. The host walked up to the deck and spouted some nonsense that Noah couldn't decipher.

"What with the who now?" Cody exclaimed.

Sierra gasped. "Oh my god!" she squealed. "We must be in Newfoundland! Chris is originally from around-!" She said something, but again Noah doubted they were words.

"Aye!" Chris said as Noah was slowly getting used to his exaggerated accent. "It's a homecoming for old buddy Mclean! Canada's beautiful east coast!"

"Birthplace of Canada's most beautiful host!" Sierra sighed dreamily.

"Aw, thanks!" Chris said. "It's just a hop and a skip that away!" He pointed behind him to the open ocean. Noah squinted but couldn't see any land in that direction. "First part of the challenge," he explained. "Swim over to your team's boat and start paddling! To keep it interesting for Team Victory, since they are a team of one, their boat has been outfitted with a motor!"

"What?!" DJ groaned. "Come on!"

Alejandro turned to the rest of his team. "Alright, team!" he said. "Vamos!" He began to swim towards their boat, with Izzy and Tyler following him.

Noah stayed back, glancing at DJ, seeing him not bother to swim and instead just tread water. "Is something wrong, Noah?" Owen asked, looking between him and DJ.

"N-nothing," Noah quickly said, as he begun to swim towards the boat and managed to get there before Owen. He climbed on and looked back to see Owen struggling to swim towards the boat.

"Izzy," Alejandro said. "Fishing net if you please."

Izzy grinned and grabbed a large net from the floor of their boat and tossed it at Owen, snaring him in its grasp. "Wow, you're quite the catch Big O! Welcome to my crew!" Alejandro, Tyler, and Izzy began to drag him towards the boat, while Noah watched, his eyes darting between DJ, who still hadn't moved, and his team.

"I wouldn't worry about DJ, Noah." Noah turned to Alejandro, surprised to see him also looking at DJ while he pulled Owen up onto the boat. "Nothing has stopped him from continuing the competition so far. Not even that god awful fashion show in Paris."

Noah frowned. "I thought you wanted an alliance with him?" he asked.

"I do," Alejandro admitted, finally turned to Noah, as the rest of the team got ready to row. "But mostly to stick it to Heather." He smiled sheepishly. "Quite a selfish reason, no?"

Tyler handed Noah a paddle and for a third time, he glanced at DJ to see him already on the boat, sobbing into his hands.

How had gotten on the boat so quickly?

Shaking his head, Noah sat down and placed the paddle on the water, as Chris's own boat steered itself next to all the teams. "Hi there, contestants!" he greeted. "Ready to row row row your boats? The first two teams to get their boat to the shore will take part in the final challenge. Oh, and if you land some seafood along the way. On your mark!" He raised a finger into the air. "Get set! Go!" He blew his ship's horn, making Noah wince.

Team Amazon's and Team Chris's boats both moved forward from the finish line, as DJ's boat stayed completely still. Team Chris was easily faster so they quickly overtook the Amazon's boat, as Alejandro waved to them. However, after a few minutes, Alejandro commanded them to stop.

"What are we doing?" Tyler asked. "The other teams are going to catch up!"

Alejandro smirked. "Noah you said you wanted to help DJ, correct?"

Noah blinked. "Well not exactly," he said. "I want him in an alliance with our team." And to help him with Lancer, though Noah didn't say that aloud.

Alejandro beamed. "Excellent." He gestured to DJ who was still sitting in his boat not moving. "If you want to jump out and swim to him, then you're free to."

Noah glanced at the water and inwardly shivered, but… "Fine," he said, handing his paddle to Owen and swinging one leg over the edge of the boat. "Just don't plan on voting me out if this ends up being an elimination challenge."

Alejandro placed a hand over his heart. "You have my word."

Noah nodded and hopped out, diving back into the water. He surfaced and began to swim over towards DJ's boat.

Luckily he wasn't too far away, so it didn't take him too long to reach it. However, when he pulled himself up towards the edge of the boat to climb up, he was met with a shock. "H-Heather?!" he spluttered, seeing her already there, trying to turn on the motor.

Heather looked angry. "Noah?!" she snapped. "What did Alejandro send you?"

Noah climbed on and hesitated to answer, which was all the answer that Heather apparently needed. "No way," she scowled. "Get off and go back to your own boat."

Noah glanced at DJ, who was sitting at the front of the boat. "Well it's not like it's your boat," he pointed out, planting himself in the middle of the boat and grabbing a fishing rod from the floor. If Heather was going to steer then he might as well make himself busy and try to fish.

"Listen, guys," DJ said nervously, glancing at Noah as if expecting him to attack at any second. "I want to lose! I have a cough." He coughed weakly into his hand. "See?"

Noah gave him a dry look. "Seriously?"

"You'll thank me later, DJ," Heather said enthusiastically. "Not Noah though." Noah rolled his eyes.

"I don't want to hurt another little animal okay?!" he protested. "I just want to go home!"

 _Ding!_

Noah stiffened, as Chris maneuvered his own boat right next to them. "Nuh uh!" DJ held up his hands. "No way am I going to sing."

"You know you're out if you don't sing, right?!" Chris pointed out.

"Wait a minute, you're right!" DJ realized, folding his arms. "Please start the song!"

Xxx

Sea Shanty

 **Alejandro** : _We're heading down to Newfoundland, that rocky eastern shore!_

 **Owen** : _I'll have the shrimp, mussels, cod, and the lobster thermidor!_

 **Gwen** : _I can't get a thing to bite, so we better get there first!_

 **Courtney** : _Row harder, faster, both of you. For the win, work up a thirst!_

Courtney held up a large megaphone to her mouth. "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" she yelled at both Sierra and Cody.

 **Noah:** _It's a sea shanty, and it's darn catchy!_

"Yes!" Heather cheered on Noah, as she managed to get the boat started, and glanced at DJ. "Go on, DJ, it's your turn!" However, DJ just shook his head, keeping silent.

 **Tyler:** _Izzy, you're a nut-bar, but you sure can catch a fish!_  
 **Izzy:** _Thanks, there, B'y, you're right kind to my partner, he's Irish._

Izzy grinned as she danced with a large tuna. "And if you want the next drill, he's all yours!" she said to the others on her team.

 **Cody and Sierra:** _Trying our best, Courtney, our arms are getting fried!_

Gwen suddenly pointed. "Courtney, do you see?"

Courtney turned her head to see a very familiar shape on a nearby rocky island. "Could it be?"

 **Courtney:** _Steer hard starboard side!_

 **Heather:** _It's a sea shanty, and it's darn catchy!_  
 **DJ:** _No, you can't catch me, with a sea shanty!_

"Yes!" Heather cheered as DJ's mouth fell open. "You sang! You're still in the game!"

"Oh no," DJ whispered, holding a hand over his mouth.

"You kinda walked into that one, DJ," Noah said humorously.

"Yes, you're still in the game!" Chris called out to the three, slowly fading into the distance. "But not for long! You might want to take a wee gander over there b'y!"

Noah's head swiveled forward and quickly noticed that they were heading straight for an iceberg. "Oh come on, we're not even doing a Titanic-themed challenge!" he complained as both Heather and DJ screamed. Heather slammed on the gas as the boat swerved to the left, narrowly missing the ice.

"That was close!" Heather exclaimed, glancing back at the iceberg.

"Yeah…" DJ took a deep breath. "Just drive… more carefully… please."

"Please do," Noah said dryly, leaning back in his seat as he tried and failed to catch fish. "The last thing we need to do is drown with no one in sight." It was true, from what he could tell they were far past the other teams and could actually see a small island coming quickly into view.

Heather scowled. "I should shove you off this boat right now and let you drown," she said.

"Come on, Heather," DJ scolded. "As misguided as this is, I do appreciate you guys helping me."

Heather immediately smiled. "Of course, DJ," she said in a sweet voice. "So, what do you think about an alliance-!"

"No," DJ said firmly.

Her smile fell. "Why not?" she cried indignantly.

"I've already said my piece," DJ said, folding his arms.

Noah frowned. "Well if you two are done arguing then I'm pretty sure we've reached the shore," he said pointing to an island they were growing closer to. He withdrew his fishing line and place the rod back on the floor of their boat.

Heather glanced over to where Noah was pointing and visibly winced. "No, not there," she said, steering the boat away from the island.

"Why not?" DJ asked with a frown.

"Just… There's a reason alright!" Heather snapped. "Besides I don't even see Chris's boat over there!"

Noah squinted to see that Heather, for once, was correct. Chris was nowhere to be seen. Not only that, the island itself was rather small with only some blackened ruins on it, reminding Noah of several houses. A village, perhaps?

As they got closer, he recoiled, a strange sense of unease enveloping his body and… familiarity?

"Oh," DJ said quietly. "Yeah… let's not go there."

Heather looked confused but seemed happy that they weren't questioning her decision. She maneuvered the boat away from the island and soon enough, after passing a couple more icebergs they could see another shore coming into view. They slid uneventfully onto the sandy beach to find Chris already there and no other teams in sight.

Heather jumped off the boat, shoving Noah to his back before he could get off. "We beat them?" She threw her hands into the air. "We beat them!" She stuck her tongue out at Noah. "In your face!"

"Well played, ambitious one!" Noah glanced behind him to see that the rest of his team were just arriving onto the shore. Tyler and Owen looked especially exhausted.

"In an out of nowhere, come from behind victory!" Chris said, gesturing to Team Victory. "Team Victory is first!"

"I just can't lose!" DJ whined.

Alejandro walked up to Noah as he managed to jump off the boat. "Excellent work teammate."

Noah glanced at him. "Um… you're welcome?" he replied, a bit confused.

"Heather, on the other hand, seems to be missing her entire team," Chris continued.

"Where are they?!" Heather exclaimed, squinting out into the distance.

"Maybe they were eaten by a cod!" Izzy offered.

Heather looked horrified. "They better not have!" she scowled. "That means I'm the only one who can get eliminated!"

"Don't worry I'll send out some of the crew to check if they are alright," Chris said, walking over to a nearby picnic table. "In the meantime… it's time for the next leg! Since Team Amazon were the losers for the first part that means they're out!" Heather gasped. "That means she'll have to clean the fish and lobsters that the other teams have brought in! And…" Chef dumped a bucket of clams in front of Chris. "Shuck all these giant clams!"

"When my whole team gets here right?" Heather asked between gritted teeth.

"Yeah, but you're here," Chris pointed out.

"Not as a team," Heather fired back. "I'm just here as me."

"And I'm here as a guy hosting a huge swanky beach shindig in a couple of hours!" Chris tossed a calm at Heather. "Which he needs some beautiful Atlantic clams for! Shuck 'em up!"

Heather managed to catch the clams in midair, but not before getting clam juice all over her face. "My team is going to pay!" she seethed.

"I thought that the team who brought in the most seafood would get a special reward," Alejandro asked.

"You do!" Chris grinned. "You get to watch Heather shuck clams! How's that for a reward?!"

Alejandro thought for a moment. "Fair enough!" he answered, as Heather growled.

"While Heather does that," Chris said, as Heather sat down at the picnic table miserably. "We're going to have the next part of our challenge inside the fishing lodge! Everyone, except Heather, follow me!" Chris began to walk towards a small wooden house at the edge of the beach, as both Team Chris and DJ began to head in the same direction. Noah paused and glanced at DJ, to see him still looking a little cross that he hadn't gotten eliminated yet.

"DJ!" he said, running up to him, as DJ stiffened.

"Oh hey, Noah," DJ greeted, rubbing the back of his neck, uncomfortably. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Noah repeated, incredulously. "So how's war been treating you lately huh?" he furiously whispered.

DJ winced. "Listen," he whispered, looking tense. "Once I'm eliminated… you don't have to worry about me. I'll be gone."

"But-!" Noah started to say, but he was too late. DJ had already moved away from him and disappeared into the lodge. Noah gritted his teeth and placed a hand on his forehead. "I swear to god…"

Noah walked inside to see that his team was seated on the left while DJ was on the right. With some reluctance, he took a seat in between Tyler and Alejandro, just as Chris started to explain the next challenge. "Welcome to my traditional Newfoundland kitchen party! In this part of the competition, its Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot versus DJ. In a screeching in relay!" He opened up a cupboard and pulled out some large brown jugs, placing them on the table. "It's a ceremony done by the locals to welcome the newcomers! First, you'll have to swig down a lot of apple cider."

"Doesn't sound too bad…" Owen said with a smile.

"Correction!" Chris said holding up a finger. "That was supposed to be apple cider vinegar. It'll put hair on your chest." Owen's smile fell. "Owen, you and Izzy must each finish an entire bottle. As soon as you do, you will tag Alejandro and Noah, who will then have to decipher a local Newfoundland saying, spoken by my cousin, Jerd McLean." A rather short man with Chris's face walked in. He had a large beard and was wearing a yellow raincoat.

The man placed his hands on Noah and Alejandro's shoulder and said… something.

"Then Alejandro and Noah will tag Tyler, who will have to kiss a cod. Like he means it." Tyler grimaced. "DJ since you're the only member of Team Victory you will have to do the entire relay by yourself." Chris blinked when he noticed that DJ's side of the table was empty. "DJ? Where is DJ?!"

"Huh." Izzy scratched her head. "Must've gotten eaten by a cod."

Owen gave her a weird look. "What's with you and cod?" he asked.

Izzy grinned and jabbed her elbow into Owen's stomach, making the larger boy groan. "I made a friend in the ocean!" she said brightly.

"Shouldn't someone go and find him?" Noah asked as he started to stand up.

"Don't worry, Noah," Alejandro grabbed Noah's shoulder and pushed him back down. "I'm sure DJ will show up again."

"But-!" Noah started to say.

"Nah, let him run." Chris waved his hand, looking uninterested. "With him missing that just means Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot will get a head start. Let the screeching in begin!"

Owen and Izzy took a look at their jugs for a second, before grabbing them by the handle and beginning to chug. After a couple of seconds, the two of the calmly set their jugs back on the ground. Izzy looked completely unfazed, while Owen looked at the jug in contemplation. "Not bad," he said, before smiling. "Not bad at all. You got anything back there in a balsamic? Maybe a few chips on the side…?"

Suddenly DJ ran in clutching his neck and coughing, following by Heather carrying an empty jug. She held it up. "She did it! DJ drank the entire thing!"

"Wow." Chris blinked. "Didn't see that coming. Both teams move onto to the interpretation part of the challenge. Ready? Take it away, Jerd."

Jerd cleared his throat. "Ring the mail in the pump house," he said.

"Uh…" Noah just stared. "Were those even words?"

"Are you serious?" Alejandro asked Chris.

"Man!" DJ began hopping around, holding his hands over his crotch. "That vinegar went right through me! I have to use the bathroom."

Jerd snapped his fingers. "Correct!" Chris said.

"What?!" DJ exclaimed.

"Jerd asked to use the washroom like a true maritimer," Chris explained. "Way to go DJ."

DJ scowled but quickly ran out of the small house, presumably heading straight for a washroom. After a while, he returned and placed himself back onto the table right across from Tyler. "Looks like you're back in the game," Chris said. "And not only that… you're leading! You can now move onto the third and final round. Yo Chef!"

"Gimmee that bucket!" Noah swiveled his head to see Alejandro suddenly get pushed to the ground, as Chef strolled inside with a small metal bucket.

"I guess it's too hard to say thanks," Alejandro sighed, sitting back down next to Noah, as Chef pulled out a fish and tossed it towards DJ. It landed on the table in front of him.

"All you gotta do is mooch the cod for the win," Chris explained. "And remember DJ… like you mean it." He winked and DJ shivered. "Team Really Really Really Really Host still have to interpret. You'd better get a move on! Jerd? Another saying, if you please?"

Jerd nodded. "The worst thing you can have in your head is a nartoot."

Noah and Alejandro exchanged a baffled look. "Okay," Noah finally said after a moment of silence. "I think he said something about Owen's butt."

"The kid's about as smart as a bag of rocks, mate!" Jerd said, gesturing to Noah.

"Hey!" Noah protested as he could hear Berserker laughing inside his head, which was a surprise after she stayed completely silent for most of the challenge.

Why did she only make a sound when he was being insulted or miserable?

"Haha!" Chris laughed. "I know! Alejandro any guess?"

"The worst thing you can have in your head…" Alejandro said slowly. "Is no teeth?"

Jerd nodded, as Chris beamed. "Correct! And how true! Tyler!" Chef handed Tyler a cod. "Time to pucker up!"

"I don't think I can do this," Tyler admitted. "It's a fish!"

"I can't either," DJ said, holding up his hands. "If I touched it then my curse would get it hurt."

Heather suddenly dashed next to DJ and pointed at the fish or more specifically a small Egyptian eye right next to the fish's own eye. "Oh my god, DJ, look!" she exclaimed. "It's an Egyptian symbol! It could be some kind of… countercurse! If you kiss this fish then you might break your curse!"

DJ looked unconvinced. "Are you sure…?"

Alejandro walked up. "DJ, I'm sorry, but I cannot remain on the sidelines anymore. I believe Heather may be right."

"Really?" DJ questioned.

"I'm impartial here. I would like Tyler to kiss the cod so we don't lose, but I care more for the animals!" Alejandro confessed. "Of the world! You must end this curse!"

"Well, I guess… I can… maybe…" DJ mumbled as he stared at the fish, taking another look at it. "A-Alright," he stammered, picking up the fish. "I guess it might work…"

At the same time, Tyler had picked up his fish. "Close your eyes," Alejandro suggested. "Think of Lindsay…"

"Ohh…." Tyler groaned sadly. "I miss her…"

"I know…" Alejandro comforted. "But she would want you to win the challenge. Close your eyes."

Tyler closed his eyes and puckered his lips at the same time that DJ was doing the same thing. What they did next was something that Noah wished he could erase completely from his memory.

Meanwhile, he could hear Berserker laughing in the back of his mind, but again he chose to ignore it. _No wonder my little cousins aren't allowed to watch this show,_ he couldn't help but think.

"Okay! Okay!" Chris shouted, waving his arms. "It's a tie! A draw!"

At that moment, Team Amazon decided to come running through the door, out of breath. "Hey right on time!" Chris said. "Team Amazon, you are today's big-time losers!"

"Courtney?!" Heather growled. "Where were you?!"

Gwen pushed Courtney aside. "It wasn't her fault. It was mine!"

"Gwen!" Courtney was surprised.

"I got us lost," Gwen continued.

"What?" Heather snapped. "I am so voting you off."

"Except, in celebration of my native land," Chris cut in. "This is a reward challenge only. No elimination! Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot and DJ are tied for a reward! A delicious clam and fish chowder supper!"

All of them cheered, though DJ sounded like he was cheering more so for the win than for the supper, while Team Amazon sulked in the background.

Xxx

The chowder wasn't that bad, which had surprised Noah.

He could only assume that Chef had gotten help from Chris's extended family, who came and went from the small party around the fishing house where they had taken the challenge. Most of them ignored the contestants, instead favoring to talk to Chris and Chef in low voices. Occasionally he would catch a couple of them staring at him, where they would subsequently avert their gaze and chat with the person closest to them.

It's not like Noah really cared, but at the same time it was slightly unnerving, and not in the whole "reality television," way. It felt like all of them were interested in him in particular.

So when he caught DJ silently slip out of the gathering to head back towards the beach, Noah followed him, dodging in between a couple just to keep the boy in his eyes. He caught him sitting on the picnic table in front of the house, gazing up at the stars, cradling a small fishbowl where he was keeping the supposed magic cod.

Before Noah could even open his mouth, DJ looked back at him, his expression tense. "What do you want, Noah?" he asked, his expression tired.

His tone made Noah pull short in what he was going to say. He looked around carefully to check if anyone was nearby.

"No one's around," DJ told him. "I had Assassin check nearby." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I already knew that you wanted to come and fight me, first."

Noah could feel Berserker tensing up in the back of his mind and quickly assured, "No I'm not."

DJ frowned. "Why not?" he asked. "You… do know what this is about, right?"

"The Holy Grail War," Noah answered. "I understand it, but that's not why I wanted to talk to you." He held out his hand. "I want an alliance."

DJ stared at the outstretched hand. "Like Heather?" he asked.

Noah recoiled. "No-what?" he snapped, irritated. "I need your help to fight off Lancer."

"Lancer… The girl that attacked us in Paris?" DJ asked.

"Yep," Noah said bitterly. "The place where you abandoned me and made me deal with her myself."

DJ winced. "Sorry," he apologized. "I thought that I could create a counter curse myself with that mummy dog."

Noah frowned. "Countercurse?"

"Yeah." DJ nervously traced the rim of his fishbowl. "You know for the curse that makes me hurt animals."

"Wait. That curse was real?"

DJ nodded. "Yeah." He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "I got it from the breaking a dog mummy statue in Egypt. I'm just… I'm just glad it wasn't lethal." He laughed nervously, before glancing down at his new pet. "And I'm just glad I found this guy before it got any worse."

Noah glanced at his fish. "Is that how it works?" he asked.

DJ frowned. "Yeah… aren't you a magus? Mama tells me this is common knowledge."

Noah scowled. "Well, I just figured out I was a mage about a week ago, so sorry about having common knowledge."

DJ blinked. "How…?"

Noah shrugged. "I summoned Berserker, somehow and Chris told me that I had joined some sort of Holy Grail War." He fidgeted. "Anything else I know is from the book that host gave me."

"Book…?" DJ cocked his head to the side. "What kind of magecraft to you practice then?"

"Um…" Noah shifted on his feet. "Runes?"

DJ stifled a laugh, which annoyed Noah. "Well?" he snapped. "What do you do for magic?"

That shut up DJ and he looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Voodoo," he murmured softly.

Noah choked back his own laugh. "What you play with shrunken heads and all that stuff?!"

DJ rolled his eyes. "It's a lot more than that," he insisted.

The smile was still playing on Noah's lips. "So why didn't you use voodoo to break your curse or whatever?" he asked, sitting down on the wooden seat next to DJ.

DJ scowled. "It's not that simple," he complained. "I need certain ingredients to break a curse that's this old and they're all at home." Catching Noah's look of confusion, he added, "The curse has to be old if I got it in an Egyptian pyramid. Plus Mama told me using magic during the competition was cheating."

"So then why do you have a Servant?"

He shrugged. "Just before the celebrity manhunt debacle, I woke up with Command Seals on the back of my hand," he explained. "My mama and I knew about the Holy Grail War through stories, so we decided to try and summon a Servant on a whim. And… it worked," he finished halfheartedly.

"How did the Command Seals just…?" Noah started to ask.

"Usually you're chosen to participate," DJ answered. "And because of that I was…" he drew in a shaky breath. "Honestly I thought nothing was going happen until the Amazon. That was my first time seeing another Servant…"

"I didn't even know magecraft existed before all of this," he said carefully. "But that's why I need your help. We were both attacked by that lancer servant. If we work together then we'll be able to stop it from threatening our lives."

DJ gave him a wary look. "And what happens after that?" he asked. "Do you stab me in the back?" Seeing Noah's mortified look at the suggestion, he added, "Only one team can get a wish from the Holy Grail. So, Noah, what do you plan to wish for?"

Noah ruminated on the question. "I don't know," he finally said. "I'm only accidentally a part of this entire situation. I didn't _want_ to join up with a crazed monster like what my servant is."

DJ's mouth was a thin line, as he glanced down at his new pet fish. "So you don't have a wish?" he asked testily.

Noah opened his mouth, before closing it immediately. "At the moment," he admitted finally, after thinking over the question. "I don't really have anything I need to wish for. My family's already rich."

DJ raised an eyebrow. "Then why did you join Total Drama?"

Noah blinked. He had never really gotten asked that question before. "Just because I thought it would be fun," he answered evasively. He felt a sudden pinprick at the back of his mind, presumably from Berserker, but he ignored it. "But I'm also not interested in dying," he added. "So going back to the subject… an alliance?"

DJ studied Noah's face. "Fine," he relented, before smiling and holding out his hand. "I may really regret this… but an alliance between us works for me. For both the Holy Grail War and the competition."

"Oh… um…" Noah awkwardly shook DJ's hand. "Thanks."

DJ withdrew his hand and chuckled. "I should probably introduce you to my Servant, then." He looked to his right, as Assassin materialized to his right. "This is Assassin," he introduced. "His True Name is Okada Izō."

Assassin looked mildly annoyed, but if he disapproved of his Master's decision he didn't say. He just gave Noah a short nod, before quickly disappearing again.

Noah frowned. "True Name?" he asked. "What's that?"

DJ frowned. "It's their actual name." Seeing that Noah was still confused, he elaborated. "The name they had when they were alive and weren't Heroic Spirits. Berserker isn't your Servant's real name, isn't it?"

Noah felt a little dumb all of a sudden. He had forgotten that a Servant was some sort of spirit from the past. "Berserker never told me her True Name," he admitted, grasping the concept. Besides she didn't seem like a hero to him. More like a raging monster than anything else. "Who's Okada Izō?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh." Now it was DJ's turn to look awkward. "He was a… an assassin at the end of the Edo period in Japan often under the employ of some samurai."

Noah inched away, warily. "What?"

DJ held up his hands quickly. "It's fine! It's fine!" He gave Noah a weak grin. "I've got him under control. Besides he's not that bad of a guy once you get to know him." He glanced to his left, where Noah assumed that Assassin was as a spirit. "I'm being serious! We're friends, right?!"

"Sure…" Noah said, sarcastically, though it made him reflect on his own relationship with his Servant. At least DJ wasn't constantly in fear that any moment a monster would just stab him through the stomach.

DJ rubbed his hands together. "But if we're going to be in an alliance, I should probably tutor you in the basics of magecraft. So we have a fighting chance."

Noah leaned in, suddenly interested. "Go on," he said, trying and failing to maintain his usual level of sarcasm.

DJ smirked. "Well…"

Xxx

Alejandro walked onto the beach, after finally dodging some more of Chris's relatives, lugging a small metal bucket with him. He glanced farther down the bridge to see DJ and Noah both talking in hushed whispers and gathered around some paper. He had no way of telling what they were saying and could barely make them out from the distance and vice versa.

Still, it was obvious what it implied.

He walked closer to the water's edge and dumped the bucket's contents into the water. Cod fell out of the bucket and into the water. Each one had the same Egyptian eye symbol painted on its body.

Alejandro watched them go with a rather triumphant smile on his face. "How easy it is to manipulate people into doing exactly what you want," he mused to himself.

He turned to his right, as he dropped the bucket. "Don't worry," he insisted with a scowl. "You'll get your fight. Lance's Divinity makes it a problem for you to go against her, so we're at a disadvantage there. We need her out before we can make any big moves."

He sighed when his Servant bit back a response. "Yeah, yeah, don't worry." He grinned. "Everything going exactly as planned."

Xxx

 **Trivia**

Okada Izō

A Japanese manslayer in the late Edo period and one of the four great ones that operated in that time and area. He learned a variety of different styles of swordplay and he was considered a genius with his sword arm. He was involved in many assassinations and eventually was caught and executed.

Xxx

Current Known Master/Servants

Noah - Berserker (True Name: ?)

DJ - Assassin (True Name: Okada Izō)

? - Saber (True Name: ?)

? - Lancer (True Name: ?)

Alejandro -? (True Name: ?)

Xxx

 **We are reaching what I'm going to affectionately call the first arc of this story. Only two more chapters left and an interlude!**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated!**

 **-Heroi Oscura**


End file.
